A nine-foot-high sleeping Buddha’s head, reclined at an angle in the atrium of the India Habitat Centre, is literally making passersby stop, stare and admire the detailing and scale involved in creating such a work of art.
The sculpture contains a surprise element that is somewhat given away by its title, ‘The Buddhas Within’.
As you walk around the sculpture, you notice that the inside of the head has been designed like a cave that has 1,500 micro Buddhas within. It is among the 10 sculptures, eight paintings and 72 haikus on display as a part of a solo show by multi-faceted artist Satish Gupta, who rarely exhibits his works.
Aptly titled “Zen Space”, the show has on display works that have been in the making for 25 years. Viewers can visit the Visual Art Gallery at the IHC to explore the works that exude a calming influence.
Mr. Gupta said that he was at the Dambulla Rock Temples in Sri Lanka when the tsunami struck in 2004. The artist said that it was as if the world around him was thrown into turmoil, and yet the Buddha sculptures stood there — serene, timeless and reassuring — inspiring him to create the mesmerising work.
While ‘The Buddhas Within’ is a show-stealer, other sculptures at the exhibition like ‘Zen Forest’, ‘Surrender’, ‘Shunya’, and ‘Meditations on a Mandala’ add to the mysticism of the show organised by Mumbai-based Gallery Art & Soul.
In contrast to the life-size sculptures is Mr. Gupta’s collection of Haikus, presented in his characteristic and visually-rich calligraphic style.
Commenting on his diversity as a creative person, the artist says: “My work and inspiration are cyclical. I don’t want to be bound by any style and become a prisoner of myself. I like to feel free and explore so that nobody can look at a work and say this is Satish Gupta, or that is Satish Gupta.”
The artist went on to share an anecdote about the Haikus. He said that he had written them over 25-30 years ago on little scraps of paper, on the palm of his hand, or in the margins of books he was reading. But unfortunately, when he put it all together and sent it for editing, the editor forgot the book in an auto-rickshaw.
“I was really depressed as I lost my earliest drawings and writings. There were no photocopies or a soft copy, but over time I recalled all of them. Most of them came back to me easily and I have used them in this series.”
The show is on till March 31 at the Visual Art Gallery and Atrium, India Habitat Centre.
