The thing about someone like Paresh Maity’s oeuvre is that it would be a disservice to limit his brilliance to a single medium of art. Therefore, while his watercolours are significantly more popular, his mixed medium sculptures and installations lend a different perspective to the Padma Shri artist’s practice. Incidentally, as Maity tells me when he sits down with me, “making sculptures is immensely nostalgic for me because my first encounter with any form of art was making clay dolls as a little boy”.
Titled Cast and presented by Art Exposure and Birla Academy of Art and Culture, the exhibition features a collection of Maity’s recent sculptures and installations, and covers various themes such as celebration of the feminine divine, geopolitics, the symbiotic relationship between man and animal and the motion of our daily lives that postulate existential questions.
The Power (brass & copper, 2018)
“I was drawn to clay moulding at the age of seven and the lure towards this craft entrapped my senses far before I held the brush and took up painting. So this show is a real tribute to that first love I felt and one I still hold very close to my heart,” said Maity.
As dapper as warm a person he is, Maity’s eyes lit up when I pointed out the similarity of the embroidered jacket he was wearing with one of the installations on display. Titled Motion, this installation has Maity creating grasshoppers out of junk material (including Royal Enfield and ceiling fan parts) and showing them in frenzied motion — some of which was replicated on his jacket in the form of quirky, colourful embroidery. “Isn’t it similar? I designed it myself,” said a happy Maity.
“Paresh Maity has been a leading name in the world of contemporary Indian art for many years.Yet glancing at his works, one encounters a sparkling freshness and vitality that belies his years as he remains rooted and ever youthful in spirit, routinely tracing back fragrances to his early days. His larger than life works instill awe, hope, fear and a certain kind of strength that endears him to all, leaving audiences open to interpret” — Somak Mitra, director, Art Exposure
Another life-size installation titled The Power is made using traditional bells that are a ritualistic staple in south India. Maity’s bull draws from the strength of the feminine divine and that of Vedic mantras. But he also uses it to juxtapose the ephemarility of such a divine experience with the more physical experience of being in the form of the installation made with brass and copper. The Golden Shower, on the other hand, seems like a romantic representation of the Indian landscape featuring the amaltas, on first look. But a closer look lets you delve deeper into its profundity as you focus on the lifecycle of the tree and its association with spring, rejuvenation and vitality in the Indian subcontinent.
Golden Shower (brass, 2019)
While wielding the paintbrush is a more fluid and nimble process of creativity, making installations is a more physical process. So how does he do both? “As an artist, I am always brimming with ideas. While some come out through the paintbrush, some are more physical — like while making these sculptures and installations,” he answered.
On till December 16, this exhibition can be viewed on the lawns of the Birla Academy of Art & Culture.
Pictures: B. Halder