Open Space

Artist Mukesh Sharma’s installation, Shesh Nag Source: Renuka Puri

Measuring 7ft x 7ft x 80 ft, Shesh Nag is made of waste. Its creator Mukesh Sharma has made it from board monitors, keyboards, and packaging material and dressed it in sanganeri printed cloth. After travelling from the Delhi-based artist’s studio to the Jaipur Art Summit in 2013 and the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2014, it now sits on the grounds of the India International Center in Delhi. “This explores the relationship between myths and the current situation, where there is so much outburst, rapid technological changes,” says Sharma. Shesh Nag is part of a group exhibition “iSculpt”, curated by art critic Uma Nair.

With this exhibition, Nair brings in a set of sculptural works from the white cube into a public space. “It shows people that there is art to be seen and brought to them. It is also significant because the Delhi government has recently come up with the proposal to have works of public art in the city,” she says.

Apart from Sharma’s work, the display includes Madhab Das’ An Inconvenient Truth. Standing tall, it has a deer’s torso pierced with iron rods, commenting on the loss of habitat and massive deforestation. If Arun Pandit’s Mask Seller has a man in bronze selling masks, making reference to the different facets of the people we encounter, Neeraj Gupta’s Divine Love is on the relationships we nurture. Also calling for peace are Vineet Kacker’s Buddha Pillar and Sanjay Bhattacharya’s 12 ft bronze Krishna, playing a flute. Tapas Biswas’s Innocence is a girl child sitting in the center of twigs and leaves in metal, urging for her fate to be safeguarded.