Talwar Gallery is delighted to present Bubble trap and a double bow, an exhibition of new works by Ranjani Shettar.

Each of the works in Bubble trap and a double bow seems to radiate from within itself, as if moved by the swell and flow of its own cadence. Emerging from Ranjani’s purposeful play, the works probe the tension inherent in materials—a latent force imparting shape to the physical world, even when it is not visible. The works appear in natural movement—spiraling off the ground or rippling musically across the walls, stretching weightlessly in space or balanced harmoniously on the ground. Inspired by nature and informed by science, the works are tacitly shaped by the simplest of tools from the artist’s own hands.

Ranjani’s keen sensitivity to her materials manifests throughout Bubble trap and a double bow, often allowing them to speak through the grains of the wood, the pigments on muslin or the translucent hues of thousands of unique molded wax beads. To shape the works’ final form, Ranjani balances the weight of her hand-made mark with nature’s organic symmetry. In an outdoor work created from found architectural objects, while retaining the energy and the character of the materials past lives, she creates a new environment, where amidst their pull and push, a strong yet elegant equilibrium is established, one relying on constant exchange rather than stasis—on actions held in a dancer’s counterpoint.

The works in Bubble trap and a double bow present another layer in Ranjani’s ever-deepening engagement with the natural world—a product of focused and sustained attention to issues as local as material and as wide-reading as ecological responsibility. Often marrying traditionally used materials refined over centuries in India, with a sustained effort to grasp and engage the global from her life in the countryside, her work brings past, present, and future into dialogue. Over the course of her career, her sculpture and installation has consistently sought to put her art into a dynamic relationship to the space around it—to release it from sculptural stillness and insert it into the flow of movement and experience. Appearing as a kind of catalyst for the entrancing systems of energy that she activates, Ranjani challenges us to bring new awareness to every interaction with the world around us, small and large.

Ranjani Shettar’s works have been the subject of several museum exhibitions including solos at The Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), Boston, MA (2008); The Modern Art Museum, Fort Worth, TX (2008-9); The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMoMA) (2009); National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia (2011); Hermes Fondation, Singapore (2011) and BDL Museum, Mumbai, India (2012). Her works have also been featured in exhibitions at Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), NY (2010); Kiran Nadar Museum, New Delhi (2011, 2012, 2013), 5th Moscow Biennale (2013); 10th Liverpool Biennial, UK (2010); 55th Carnegie International, Carnegie Museum of Art, PA (2008); 9th Lyon Biennial, France (2007); 8th Sharjah Biennial (2007); 15th Sydney Biennale, Australia (2006); Artpace, Texas (2006); Cartier Fondation, Paris (2005); Wexner Center, OH (2005) and The Walker Art Center, MN (2003). In 2012 in collaboration with The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York the artist created a limited edition project, Varsha.

Ranjani Shettar lives and works in Karnataka, India.