Extracting art from comps and chips

An inverted tree covered with computer keys, junk computer monitors transformed into planters, a wall size mural of a village temple, a serpentine installation of keyboards and digital prints and a three-dimensional painting doubling up like a computer monitor – this is just a peep into Mukesh Sharma’s fascinating world of art.

Thirty nine year-old artist who did his Masters in Fine Arts (MFA) from MS University, Baroda, who has come up with his exhibition ‘A Terabyte-ing Serpentine’ says, “The idea is how we are enslaved by technology and how this simple keyboard button is taking over our lives.”

In this regard one installation titled Inverted search for immortality is a dead tree. Installed upside down from the ceiling, Sharma has stuck thousands of computer keys on the dried out branches of the tree creating faux branches that reach out towards the ground like complex, tortuous arms.

In an adjoining room, a video installation take viewers through the intricate process of stitching the blouse but what will make the work interactive is when viewers will be encouraged to throw digital prints of blouses on to the tree installation as if creating a wish tree of their own.

Next to the video is one of the most intriguing works by Sharma. Titled Botanic monomania, this work is a collection of nine junk computer monitors whose top has been severed to grow money-plant! “These plants have grown to their full height in the last five months since the project was initiated. This work forces us to think about recycling the non-biodegradable and the environmental hazards we live in,” says Singh.

In the far end of the same room hangs Sharma’s three-dimensional painting titled Chip on the Shoulder where a few men ride on horses, adorned with intricately painted computer keys and chips.

The show stopper is a Terabyte-ing Serpentine. The work is made of thousands keyboards pieces and their digital drawings that have been stuck together to entwine the whole room like a serpent. “The work alludes to a movement that is unseen. The snake is digging its fangs into the nerves that rule the mankind. Junk keyboards are a reminder of how each time a new invention becomes obsolete and how we have to deal with this monstrous serpent that has entered our lives,” explains Singh.

The exhibition is open till August 24 at Mukesh Sharma’s Studio 105, behind Sector D 2, Vasant Kunj.