The National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne has launched its new contemporary art space with an exhibition of work by internationally renowned artist Ranjani Shettar. In ‘Dewdrops and Sunshine’, she showcases her unique approach to sculpture, comprising material experimentation, engagement with nature, relationship to space, and exploration of tradition coupled with resonance with modernism.
She often transforms natural phenomena into mystical and magical forms, to create sculptures clearly informed by a material openness, which borrows from rich Indian craft traditions filtered through her own sensibility. Explaining her thought process, the artist quips, “There’s an element of chance in the way you see the sculpture, specifically in terms of how it manages to position itself in space according to movement of air in the space.”
The director of NGV, Dr Gerard Vaughan, has been quoted as saying: “Visitors to the Ranjani Shettar show will be amazed by the diversity of the kind of materials employed, the biological and cultural concepts that she explores as well as the spatial engagement one has with the artworks, it’s a phenomenal experience.”
Senior Curator (Contemporary Art) at the gallery, Dr Alex Baker, mentions that Ranjani “Shettar’s skillful choice of media in her art creation includes a wide range of both the organic and human-made materials like tamarind kernel paste, wood, automotive paint, muslin, lacquer, fishing line, beeswax, latex rubber, dyed thread, and steel.
The gallery has also unveiled her new piece ‘Interplay’, created especially for the exhibit, on display along with six other previous works. These include ‘Transitions’ (2003), ‘Heliotropes’ (2005-06), ‘Touch me not’ (2006-07), ‘Fire in belly’ (2007), ‘Sun-sneezers blow light bubbles’ (2007-08), and ‘Flame of the forest’ (2011).
The works explore a wide array of natural phenomena: the interaction of sunlight and water; the fluorescence of fireflies; and the plants’ kinetic response in sunlight and to sudden movement. ‘Interplay, made of two netted components (colored beeswax & lacquered wooden spheres in warm and cool colors) create a contrast, which recalls dewdrops, sunlight streaming through morning mist, or an afternoon sun shower It suggests a drawing in three-dimensions.
(Information courtesy: The NGV, Melbourne)
The National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne has launched its new contemporary art space with an exhibition of work by internationally renowned artist Ranjani Shettar. In ‘Dewdrops and Sunshine’, she showcases her unique approach to sculpture, comprising material experimentation, engagement with nature, relationship to space, and exploration of tradition coupled with resonance with modernism.
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