Me,Myself and I

Shettar talks avidly about the work — a mild steel sculpture,done in five parts and woven together to look like baskets,slathered with tamarind kernel powder. To the ordinary viewer,Me,No,Not.. appears to resemble humble baskets standing as a metaphor for consumerism. But to the eyes of John Zarobell,curator at SFMOMA,who also curated an exhibition on Mexican artist and now pop culture icon Frida Kahlo last year,Shettar’s work stand for “exceptional creativity and depth”. “They are some of the most engaging and beautiful works made by an artist today and they translate across cultural and national boundaries,” he observed. The work was sourced from the Talwar Gallery,New Delhi which represents the artist. The gallery hosted a solo exhibtion of Shettar in 2007.

To Shettar,who stays 370 kms from Bangalore,the idea of the monumental sculpture occurred during a Sharjah trip. In an industrial area,she chanced upon a mound of car bumpers. “I was in the Middle East for the first time and was trying to absorb as much as I can. It was then when I saw the bumpers and was told they go for recycling to India,” says Shettar.

Upon her return,she scoured the Bangalore junkyards and collaborated with fabricators,who were initially reluctant. “It was hard to find someone to work with who would cut old car bodies,” shares Shettar. During the process,she also discovered that recycling manifests “differently,in different places”. “In the south,things don’t die as fast,” she says,who has earlier exhibited at the Carnegie Museum of Art,Pittsburgh. She plans to stay with her latest muse. Her next project will be about small sculptures where she might “go into the pieces,rather than going around them”.