Saurav has never seen the sculpture done by his father Sarbari Roy Choudhury at Subhash Park on the city’s Park Avenue Road. An image of the work, a female nude, is not immediately available either.
To make matters worse, two young banyan trees with fairly solid stems have grown through the concrete, breaking the working into a few pieces, rendering it beyond repair.
“It seems impossible to be restored as the foundation is filled with soil through which the roots of the trees have gone really deep. But I would like to preserve the space in my father’s memory,” says Saurav, a sculptor in his own right. He was away in Norway as a resident artist when he got a call on behalf of the Kochi Corporation seeking his help to restore his father’s sculpture, done along with over a dozen sculptures at Kerala’s first international public art camp held between December, 1990, and January, 1991.
Fibreglass work
Saurav has also asked Rajan Chedambath of the Corporation’s Centre for Heritage, Environment and Development (C-HED) that had drawn up the restoration plan if the body would prefer to have another work of Sarbari in place of the lost one.
“Concrete, with iron rods inside, breaks apart over time, so it would be better to have a fibreglass work here, and there are two works of my father’s that will go with the seaside environs,” he said.
The now defunct Kerala Kalapeetom and the corporation had joined hands to organise the camp, coordinated by artist T. Kaladharan. The sculptures are being restored now, with support from the Cochin Shipyard.
On Monday, Mayor Soumini Jain and artist Bose Krishnamachari visited the restoration work that is going on in full swing.
Taking stock
Ms. Jain went about examining each of the works, listening keenly to details of how the original had been done and how the restoration was progressing.
Rahul Kaneria’s iconic Bull is almost ready. Made using steel scrap sourced from Cochin Shipyard, the work has been restored to its original brown hue. Nearby, sculptor K.P. Soman has almost completed reviving his work, After the War in Noah’s Ark on an imagined mutiny on Noah’s vessel.
“It was the time of the Gulf War and I guess the theme is relevant even now.” He intends to cover the lower surface of the sculpture with a glass-like material.
Mr. Kaladharan was seen talking animatedly to K.J. Sohan, who was Mayor at the time of the art camp which produced the works.
“Those were times without the mobile phone or e-mail and while we know some of the international artists who had taken part in it are no more, we have no idea about one or two of them,” recalled Mr. Kaladharan, who used to be in touch with the artists on snail mail. He remembered artist M.V. Devan arriving from Aluva daily in the bus.
“Someone of his stature should have come in a car,” he said.
Mr. Sohan, who would go around on his bicycle, said each of the international artists to attend the camp had brought letters and souvenirs from their Mayors. “They are still at the Corporation office,” he said.
The restoration, done in memory of Chinese-Japanese sculptor Hiroshi Mikami whose efforts resulted in the original camp, would be over by February 6, by which time there would also be boards identifying the sculptor and describing the works.
