artist writes
The rural spirit and (agri)cultural inheritance
Working on sculptural motifs, I am often tempted to make new forms following my encounters with new subject matters. Starting with my experimentation with implements such as dheki (corn thrasher) and langal (plough), I focused on twin-roofed houses making their uncomplicated form my scenographic model, from which I also departed when household implements such as haman-dista (iron pestle and morter), jaata (hand-held corn thrasher made of stone), as well as polo, a bamboo stick-made fishing device, began to draw my attention.
These are things that once were an integral part of rural life, some of which are still in use. There are narratives/stories around these paraphernalia linked to an agro-bases society; however, I am more interested in the formal aspects, and at times I have been able to produce works which testified to my being under their influence, and at others, I sort of ensured their transmutation through conscious effort.
I am attracted to such utilitarian objects as they remind me of my childhood. In my index of articles which have been part of a holistic life in the village, the most recent inclusion has been the topa-bera (circular fencing to protect a single seedling). It is a unique device that speaks of how nature is made to yield to human intervention without contributing to its downgrading.
My works are primarily a way for me to engage with the forms that I was familiar with and it is also about creating, or should one say, recreating space. These works are produced with the hope that by occupying the space between nature and human, they will start a dialogue and express an intrepid, primordial gesture. They do not tell stories, rather they create the possibilities of stories to circulate on humans and their natural environ.