Infusing art irrefutably transforms the beauty and language of a space and this is more so if the art piece is massive, dominating the ambience exuded. Sculpture, be it metal or stone, brings in not only beauty but also the skills of the craftsperson, expressing silently the cultural underpinnings the space attempts to portray.
Introducing such art and skill into the space is bronze sculptor Dimpy Menon, her works exuding a sense of celebration, a language of freedom, the sculptures literally in a motion of breaking free from the shackles and reaching out to the skies in abandon. Her art pieces unanimously evoke a sense of joy while displaying indisputable skill and creativity, the sculptures handcrafted to perfection, the emotions abounding, loud and clear on the featureless faces.
Most of Dimpy’s sculptures are massive in scale. “Bronze served as the perfect medium to express my thoughts, each piece of work revealing a new facet.” Adding that the age-old wax process that she uses to make her sculptures has served as a continuous learning process, she says, “tense moments prevail every time before you break the shell and this is so even after having done this over three decades.”
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Original form
Once the sculpture comes out of the cast, the job of chiselling and filing takes over where “the imperfections need to be worked on to bring the artwork to the original form.” Given the massive scale of most of her sculptures, Dimpy makes them in parts which are later put together. “Working on every piece to the last grain of filing gives me a sense of ownership as well as satisfaction as the final piece is entirely my work”, she adds.
The fact that these are large pieces, some weighing close to 200 kg., does not mean their display is bound to the ground. Interestingly, most of these massive pieces are displayed, hoisted up, literally defying gravity.
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Does such hoisting require accurate scientific calculations? “None” says Dimpy. “It is totally an intuitive understanding of physics where I feel, if I can visualise it in my mind I can make the sculpture work.”
As one walks through the spaces displaying her work, the bronze sculptures can be seen in a flight mode, reaching up to the skies with merely few inches of their bodies glued to the support.
A challenge
Speaking about the installation of some her works, Dimpy agrees they have posed quite a bit of challenge. “A composition of figures, each seven feet tall, had to be attached to a ribbon that projected 3 feet from the wall. The challenge here was to find a point where the load would be borne by the ribbon.”
Similar challenge was posed by yet another composition that involved two figures, a man and woman soaring up to the sky. Here the woman sculpture was to be suspended from the ceiling some 20 feet high, throwing the ribbon to the male figure leaping from the ground, where the ribbon forms a fluid arch for people to walk under.
As intuitive as her final execution, Dimpy’s sculptures display similar language, the featureless faces conveying more through their form, the rhythm and movement displayed in stillness proving to be more profound than any expression that could be revealed through features on the face.
Dimpy, a graduate of the College of Art, Chennai, gave her first solo art show in 1984. In October 2015 she won the Lorenzo il Magnifico Bronze award at the Florence Biennale, becoming the first Indian sculptor to do so.
The festival had over 450 artists participating from 64 countries. Dimpy is also the recipient of the Lalit Kala State award for her sculptures and painting.