New Delhi: Gallery Ragini presents Birds Home Coming, a solo show of nearly twenty bronze sculptures by Delhi-based sculptor Asurvedh, from September 30, 2009 to October 25, 2009 at Gallery Ragini, F-213 C, Lado Sarai, New Delhi.
Says Nidhi Jain, Director, Gallery Ragini: “This show will exhibit the intricacy in sculpting which only a skilled craftsman can achieve. The underlying objective of Asurvedh’s work is to make us more sensitive to our environmental obligations.”
Born in 1969, the artist grew up in the small village of Narela, located on the outskirts of Delhi. The countryside location proved to be the apt catalyst for his interest in nature which later influenced the artist in him when he joined the College of Art, Delhi. A gold medallist in MFA, Asurvedh draws upon the Indian countryside for his subjects and places them in happy co-existence with nature. Monuments and birds form the basis of his sculptures that speak about the artist’s innate sensitivity and attraction towards nature. Says the artist: “Like a morning raga, my day began with the music of chirping birds. It was an exhilarating experience and this is what I share with my art fraternity.” His sculptures also portray men, women and children in various postures emphasizing human bonding with not only history but also their contemporary surroundings.
Most effective when dealing with emotion, nature and environment, Asurvedh’s works are compositionally strong and carry a poetic rhythm that frees the art work from geometric angularities. His elongated figures suggesting dignity and their proximity with nature bring an added emotion to his sculpture. Works like Joy of Life and In Harmony almost seduce viewers to touch the sculpture to feel its sophistication. The subtle play of emotion in Family Bonding, where a couple holds a bird in hand, brings out Asurvedh’s own sensitive self.
Inspired from 50 years celebration of Indian Independence, Pride of India is a work that showcases India Gate as a representation of our country, where common men wave the tri-colour in the presence of birds sitting and enjoying the moment. This paradoxical situation, where men and birds perform happily together is the true celebration of Indian independence, according to the artist.
Bird Seller is another emotional response to government’s drive to free birds from cages. Says the artist: “The bird seller sells his birds to earn one square meal a day, but there exists an emotional quotient beyond this practical business. In this work, you can notice that though the bird seller has left his birds to fly in open air, they are not ready to leave him. The birds and their seller, caught up in an emotional dilemma, are dejected and unwilling to part from each other.”
Yet another work titled The Omnipresent, merges a human face with nature. With a head decorated with leafs and peacock feather and a cheek-like window, the sculptural face places both the past and present on the forefront. Some other works like Journey and & Freedom illustrates birds bringing life to an otherwise monotonous routine. Birds Coming Home, the title work, is perhaps one of the most perfect examples captured in time where man, woman, monument and birds comes in proximity with each other, thereby carrying all attributes of the Asurvedh’s genre of sculptural finesse.
The artistic approach in the compositional elements displays the tribal essence of the artistic endeavour which showcases his versatility. The artist has represented the traditional ethos of our cultural identity along with the innate bonding of relationship between male-female, human-bird and the monuments. He has tried to draw the cardinals of a cobweb which reflects that every creature shown in his sculptures have some unambiguous rapport with each-other.
With a balance in composition and each figure individually sculpted to perfection, Asurvedh wants the delicate ecological balance to remain undisturbed, to provide nascent spaces for the proliferation of birds.
