Ranjani Shettar
"The great generosity of Shettar’s works is that there is no one fact or reference that we must understand in order to make sense of them. No matter what terms we bring to the exchange, the pieces extend themselves to us and reward our engagement with them.”
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Waiting for June, 2008-2009
Unlike many contemporary Indian artists currently exhibiting their work internationally, Shettar has maintained close connections to Bangalore, India, where she was born and educated. Her artistic vocabulary is akin to those of postminimalist artists such as Martin Puryear and Eva Hesse, insofar as she explores a variety of materials and displays an interest in both handwork and the conceptual dimensions of art objects. Although she professes a keen interest in and admiration for these predecessors, they are not influences strictly speaking. Shettar's installations are crystallizations of her own thought processes. Her ideas about the natural world are the basis for her sculptural forms. which are at once rigorous and poetic. In many of her works, such as Just a bit more (2005-6) and Touch me not (2006-7), one can perceive complex systems. networks, and interactive structures. Yet their handmade details suggest a lyrical view of the value of human activities in our hypermediated era. The sculptures featured in this exhibition-Me, no, not me. buy me, eat me, wear me, have me, me, no, not me (2006-7), Waiting for June (2008-9), and Sing along (2008-9}--also activate the spaces in which they are placed, but the beauty oft heir forms is more readily apparent and the viewer is transported by them.