(By Nalini S Malaviya)
Sakshi Gupta’s recent works that are being exhibited at Galleryske form a delightful series of sculptures. Sakshi is known to work with industrial scrap and converts them into intricately designed art pieces. The various sculptures that are on display, although are very different from one another, yet form a composite thread. One of the works, a massive installation pulsates with a controlled, suppressed energy that hints at unknown forces - a labored breathing as a result of years of decay and degradation, and the effect is powerfully poignant.
Sakshi’s exploration is not only with the self, but also with the medium, that eventually translates itself into manifestations, which are sometimes strange appearing, nevertheless very interesting. The artist weaves multiple layers that are philosophical and exploratory, yet evocative and sensitive. She presents a world that has deteriorated over the years, internal conflicts that torment and apparent notions of freedom. For instance, the bird hanging upside down combines the vulnerability of death with the strength of the metal that has been used in creating it. According to Sakshi, “the act of creating these works is a process of evolution, a process that I go through along with the materials I use. And I use the word evolution, not in a linear sense of development, or progress, but as a tangled process that involves chaos, contradictions, emotional fluctuations, transformations and tangential leaps.
What makes these works so exciting is that there is an entire gamut of thoughts and emotions that have gone into them - each work aspires to be different from the other and yet coheres into a singular entity. The layers and textures that she has created make it equally exhilarating for the viewer to unravel them step by step. The complexity in terms of the execution and the concept has resulted in an unusual exhibition. Compared to her previous solo series, which comprised of three works also made out of industrial waste, this one truly surpasses itself. The process of internalization has helped immensely in the evolution of the sculptures.
Incidentally, Sakshi’s work Landscape of Waking Memories, a ‘quilt’ of cast aluminum fake eyelashes and feathers is currently part of the Indian Highway show curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Julia Peyton-Jones and Gunnar B Kvaran. It has been presented at the Serpentine Gallery in London (2008) and the Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo (2009).
(The exhibition continues till January 16 at Galleryske, Bangalore)
(Published in Bangalore Mirror)