On the loose

“I am always on the lookout for discarded objects. I love reinventing them,it feels like resurrecting Lazarus from the grave,” says the 54-year-old who is currently working at the Oberoi Art Camp,organised by Gallery Beyond.

There are other creatures inspired by fairy tales that emerge from his studio—little insects and hybrid beings,amphibians on a crutch play their role— while the human form,when it does put in an appearance,holds memories of the Greco-Roman Adonis of yore.

The last time Ladi picked something out of the bin it was a Harpic bottle that he transformed into two people balancing on a clothes iron. The result was a sculpture that sold for Rs 30 lakh on the Saffronart’s 2007 auction.

However,like others from his generation,Ladi does not like measuring art according to the price tag. “I was surprised when it sold at the auction since sculpture is more of a challenge to market,” laughs the artist,whose art is least affected by the economic meltdown. “Whether the market rises or falls my projects are planned far apart; I am not in a hurry to get somewhere and so I take my time. I also like to work on my own without anyone completing my work for me,” says the artist who took a sabbatical for five years and retreated to his ancestral home in Shillong.

“He is an established artist and yet Ladi does not overprice his work,” observes Vibhu Kapoor the host of the camp and owner of Gallery Beyond.

A scholarship winner of the Ecole Superieure des Beaux Arts residency in Paris,Ladi made a big comeback in 2008 with a solo show at Threshold Gallery,Delhi,and the art camp brings him back to Bombay—-a year after Tina Ambani’s art camp where a permanent sculpture made in marble was hewed out and stands at the Dhirubhai Ambani Learning Centre in Navi Mumbai.

“I have had my solo for the year,now I will take time building a new body of work. In the meantime I like group shows. It keeps one in touch with the art world but is not as stressful as a solo show,” says the laid back artist.

He may be laid-back in his outlook on life,but his art is in constant motion. Ladi’s work manifests a restless,lively intelligence that interrogates and subverts reality,as we know it. His art is cerebral and not mere decoration or a play with scale and monumentality,” says Sarmistha Maiti a Delhi based art critic.

His favourite motif is the frog with one leg,supported by a crutch—“He is a metaphor for the state of humanity—even though we are challenged by all kinds of issues,we still carry on our day-to-day existence.”