Recovering from a severe stroke, Vadodara-based sculptor Dhruva Mistry gave life to navarasa or nine emotions in stainless steel.
Called “Something Else”, this body of work has now come to Delhi after having been seen in Mumbai. On display at Artdistrict XIII in Lado Sarai, there are relief pieces in thick stainless steel plates painted with epoxy paints.
Dhruva Mistry studied sculpture at MS University, Baroda and Royal College of Art, London. His public art sculptures occupy spaces like Victoria Square in Birmingham, Goodword, Sussex, the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Hakone Open Air Museum, Japan, etc. Elected to be a fellow with the Royal Society of British Sculptors in London in 1993, he retired from the fine arts faculty of MS University. The artist showing in Delhi after a gap of eight years, explains his latest body of work at length.
Edited excerpts from an email interview:
Engagement with the concept of Maya as in “Something else”
“Order of the present is disorder of the future” – Saint-Just. Read a large work by Ian Hamilton Finley, the man from Little Sparta seem to be all true in the context of a classical struggle of reality of modern or developmental life of individual pursuits of human interest in the age of all controlling governments. Individual pieces as endless configuration of living elegance with simmering pulse of forms arising out of awe inspiring life as a sensual experience challenge contemporaneity of ideas.
On reimagining the female body
An idea of body symbolising vital reality of life as a streamlined form of living energy with pulsating beauty of contours captured into numerous forms reflect complex reality of human experience. Sadly, in the country of faith dominated by the patriarchal male and much worshipped female principles of Shiva and Shakti, there is no respite from critical greed, lust and brutality of the ignorant masses as news of female foeticide, sexual abuse, rape as well as murder become part of a grim reality of a shameless modernity that one might call dud development.
On the dichotomy between emotions and then nothingness in his works
I feel that art as an experience of reality is ‘something else’ without which one may not become aware of the things that matter. Comprehension of concept of life remains distinct from the given reality of visuals reflecting limitations of human thought, advancement and ideas of success. The fullness of my form isn’t possible without the emptiness of space around it. Dialectal devices and knowledge of form offers complex range of media and variations which wasn’t the case even a decade ago. People press for the pleasure principles of digital delights as if to escape more pressing issues that control material life of the mortal masses be it water, sanitation, electricity, safety, security, harmony and much else.
On the paralytic stroke marking a departure in his art
A severe paralytic stroke in 2008 summer affected my left side. It was a nerve shattering experience for several years until the tingly shatter of pain and spastic movement reduced stressful discomfort and movement. My experience of pain kept me engaged since then to overcome unexpected crises. Slowly but surely, incessant flow of ideas of work in general helped me to find myself. However frustrating, years of tingling buzz of cramping pain with a sense of numbness as well as bouts of disillusionment and despair helped me to find dispassionate ways to deal with the limitations of time, space, energy and resources of my being. It has been an arduously slow but enlivening process of learning has boosted my comprehension of sculpture as a form with the help of loving family and some friends. Maya as an ever expanding contemporary reality of experience led by appearance or visual illusion made of layers of perceptual truth interested me. This time, a set of nine emotions came to life with corresponding hues as opposed to the reliefs of ‘Bad Infinite: Delight of the reason’ of the mid 1990s and wooden masks. The cut outs reveal sculptural beauty of classical rasa like, Rati or love, Hasya or mirth, Karuna or sorrow, Rudra or anger, Vira or energy, Bhayanaka or fear, Bibhatsa or disgust, Adbhuta or astonishment and Shanta or tranquillity affecting the life. An undercurrent of love and youthfulness led by visual imagination and energy dominate my creative conscience in our living civilization.
On stainless steel – the medium of expression
Stainless steel is a metaphor of cool, cold ways of life that reflect lyricism of public spaces be it bus stops, shopping malls, stations, airports, offices and homes through its, shiny, silvery surfaces of simmering light of restlessness. I work to draw shapes and conceive forms to be laser cut as necessary which reminds me of my stainless interests and personal pursuit of sculpture as an extension of a classical discipline in the critical age of a millennial mess and muddle plaguing the world.
