Denting material to create a beauty

ART AFFAIR

And the man who’s brought about this dynamism to Indian art is artist Alex Davis. A mechanical engineering graduate, Davis has drawn inspiration from truck, auto rickshaw art to mould sheet metal into various designs and exhibit them on Delhi’s roads for public delight.

The exhibition, appropriately titled ‘Dented Painted’ is on at Apparao Galleries @ Aman, Lodhi Road till February 29 next year. As Davis puts it, “The exhibition is a collection of sculptures inspired by the visual vocabulary of vehicles. It is a tribute to the dying art of denting and painting of automotive by small road side painters.” The medium used is stainless steel with high gloss paint finishes as in car paints.

At present a total of five sculptures, each evokes a sense of India’s highways, beautifully adorned trucks, auto rickshaws and buses. Cryptic words like ‘Stop’, ‘Ok’ and ‘Blow Horn’, found often on the rear of public vehicles, become an art form in Davis’ hands and he explores them giving them drama with the scale of his exhibition.

The gaze of the viewer then adds to this, moving them from popular culture to art.
Davis adds, “As a family, we often go out on road trips, and that is how the idea of playing with public transport art occurred to me. My mechanical engineering training made me fluent with metals that gave me the perfect medium to express myself. I hope the work communicates.”