“Drawn to the intrinsic qualities of extremely simple materials, Shettar creates installations often intended to reveal the process of perception and apprehension of the built and non-built spaces she makes her own. In this way she establishes a metaphorical relationship with the very body of a space and the space of a body, with those cycles and reactions whose center- if indeed there is one – is the sensory experience of the surrounding world.”
Philippe Vergne
Me, No, Not Me, Buy Me, Eat Me, Wear Me, Have Me, Me, No, Not Me, 2006-2007 (Detail)
Talwar Gallery, New Delhi is pleased to announce Epiphanies, an exhibition of recent works by Ranjani Shettar. In Epiphanies, Ranjani Shettar explores the relationship between materials and meaning by using manmade materials to mimic forms occurring in nature. In Me, no, not me, buy me, eat me, wear me, have me, me, no, not me, she creates organic, pod like forms from the discarded remains of used car bodies. By weaving the mild steel into overlapping strips, the artist evokes the multiple, intersecting histories of the material alluding to cycles of consumption and commodification, prompting a reflection on technology-driven modernity and its relationship to nature.
Me, No, Not Me, Buy Me, Eat Me, Wear Me, Have Me, Me, No, Not Me, 2006-2007 (Detail)
Drawing from similar concerns and awareness, in the second installation thousands of wooden beads form swirling patterns across the expanse of white walls. The beads are modest in isolation but dynamic and beautiful in unison. Inspired from the vantage point of the plant Touch Me Not, from which this work takes its name, Shettar points to the vulnerability we face as individuals, collectively gravitating towards some unknown destination. In this exhibition, Shettar extends her focus to using natural materials to communicate a larger sense of history and evolution. In choosing materials whose meanings are literally inscribed in their forms, the artist urges the viewer to uncover, in gentle epiphanies, the stories contained therein.
