State of the Nation

Is the judiciary getting too big for its boots? Sculptor Prithpal Singh Ladi certainly thinks so. His latest exhibition, titled “Logic and Illogic” at Gallery Threshold...

This Shillong-based sculptor adds some satire into his works

Is the judiciary getting too big for its boots? Sculptor Prithpal Singh Ladi certainly thinks so. His latest exhibition, titled “Logic and Illogic” at Gallery Threshold, shows the giant pillar of the judiciary squashing the Ashoka pillar. His other works are just as comically satirical — a world of powerful elephants run by a computer mouse, a man trying to catch a butterfly but failing.

The Shillong-based sculptor’s first solo show in a decade is marked by plucky experimentation. Each sculpture is a compressed narrative with an underlying autobiographical reference. “All my works begin with a personal experience and then go on to paint a larger picture. The works tell the stories of so many others whom we categorise as India’s common man,” explains Ladi. His materials range from stone and steel to bamboo, glass and clay. A special series of jewelled insects comprise large dragonflies in glass, gemstone and metal, their desolation a comment on the scourge of deforestation.

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And nothing is politically incorrect for the sculptor. “I don’t care if they arrest me for squashing the Ashoka stambha under the pillar of the judiciary because that’s the state of our country right now,” he says. Brave, indeed.

On till November 12, at Gallery Threshold, F-213 A, Lado Sarai

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