Through the looking glass of life

KAVA 3 winners of 2007, Ved Prakash Gupta and Shiv Varma recently exhibited their works at Kashi Art Gallery, Kochi. Art critic P.Sudhakaran says that these two young artists satirically approach the hypocrisies of contemporary life, but through different sculptural idioms.

Impeccably dressed men, stylish and contemporary. The ones who could perfectly fit into the boardroom to the page 3 had they been not dwarfs. On the other hand there are tiny sculptures of the typical Bastar tradition, but with a difference. Rather than highlighting inherent culture and tribal craftsmanship these sculptures are focussed on the concerns about the invasion of modern technology into our ethnicity.

The sculptures of this year’s Kashi Award for Visual Arts (KAWA 3) winners Ved Prakash Gupta and Shiv Verma assumes significance in the socio-political scenario of our times.

Ved’s fibreglass sculptures have a strong element of satire – both political and social. The painted fibreglass sculpture, ‘The Left is Left and the Left is Right’ in one such political statement. Here the Left and the Right are almost like mirror images, making no difference. In the contemporary political scenario we have seen how left is the Left and the way power equations change our ideology. In ‘The Untitled Man’ series as well as ‘The Men… (Life is a Course of Consideration)’ the dwarf-like business tycoons with their clownish visage arouse laughter in the viewer. And this is what the artist intended also.

With this distortion of the figures the artist is ‘cutting to size’ those big guns in the society who once discriminated against the likes of him. By attributing this clownish face to them Ved is actually spitting venom on the rich and the powerful. The way he portrays the expression on the masked faces of these ‘tiny tots’ is also interesting. Rather than highlighting their power these sculptures deal with their helplessness and lack of identity.
The sculpture ‘Celebrity Next’ is a fine example of this. Their self-importance is limited to them only make them laughing stocks, the artist proclaims. The original itself is the parody here; the mighty is the minion. By making ‘Lilliputians’ out of these figures the artist is avenging the discrimination meted out to him in his native Bihar in the name of cast, creed and social status.

Coming to the sculptures of Shiv Kumar Verma, the societal concerns are much subtler. He never pokes at the society or makes satirical comments. Hailing from Kondagaon in Bastar, which is famous for its traditional art and craft, Shiv Kumar’s inspiration has its roots in this tradition only.

While his early works were in the typical tradition of the Dogra casting and iron art of the region, in the recent works he has started using steel as well. It is with these two materials with their contrasting nature that Shiv Verma expresses his concerns about the changing social order. In this age of biotechnology and genetic engineering this young sculptor is much concerned about the kind of invasion it makes on our inherent culture. In the recent works that are a combination of iron and steel this is more evident. While iron has an organic touch to it, steel is not that organic. It is with this contrast that Shiv makes his comment on our times.

Almost all the works exhibited in his ‘Skepticism’ series has this undercurrent of anxiety, which becomes evident quite often. The sculpture of a huge stainless steel stapler with typical tiny figures from his Bastar tradition is a clear statement about invasion of mechanisation. While this sculpture is on the invasion of technology, another one where a guitar morphing into the map of India (Skepticism 1) is on the cultural invasion, the westernisation. But the problem with such an observation is that it is more impulsive.
The same concerns about the impact of the ‘invasive’ technology is depicted in his drawings on canvas as well as on the sculptures made of stainless steel with acid engraving and iron.

Though both Ved and Shiv, explore the realities and anxieties of our times their approach is different from each other, like the materials they use. Their looking glasses have different visions. While Ved makes powerful statements through his sculpture, Shiv is much subtle in his approach. Rather than making outbursts he sees things as an observer and makes subtler comments.