Carved from salvaged stumps

SOON CAPITAL will get the opportunity to witness a spell bounding series of work on wood. A group of contemporary senior Delhi sculptors have come together and each sculptor has something unique to present through this show. With simple hand tools and saw, a sculptor with an artistic vision can transform a block of wood to an idea, an expression and that is what can be viewed here. Their experience and skills add on a lot of personal meaning to their work showcased.

It is an exhibition of wood sculptures where the sculptors have brought life into the uprooted lifeless log that was once a living organism through which the sculptors intend to narrate the cycle of birth and death and re-generation. Wood is a very demanding material to carve. Trees that have suffered weather damage, and salvaged stumps carved and reshaped, unconsciously create another language, a story of energy and matter with radiating beauty and grace.

Wood carving is laborious and takes years of practice to go along with the wood grains. One can say it’s a battle between control and freedom and this exhibition is therefore to follow the little exciting adventure that the artist has explored through the carvings and installations.

Sculptor Umesh Nayak used nature as a primary source of inspiration and has tried to be a part of Mother Nature. His figurative carvings are inspired from ‘Prakriti’ and with the use of blow torch he creates burning surface on the wood. Shubhika Lall, curator of the exhibition has also showcased some of her fine works through this exhibition.

Neeraj Gupta, has tried to make people aware about the mass destruction we are doing to the environment for our personal satisfaction. While the Delhi metro was being built there were a number of tree being uprooted which prompted him to carve along the path of the roots as a story of life. B. K. Singh’s works are the outcome of the difficult situations and struggles he faced in his life. “The hollowness of the wood somehow started echoing a kind of harmony. Once I started carving out more space removing those portions which were making it rott both of us went through a catharsis” says the sculptor who also have knack towards painting. Each sculptor has something new to present and try to spread messages with serious concerns. The works are carved from uprooted trees of the city. This exhibition is not only about forms and shape but to establish a dialogue to engage issues, to inspire action.