Lasting Impressions

India is a country of varied hues and arts. Art installations add vibrancy and charm to a place and there is no end to an artist’s canvas. Compiled by Supriya Aggarwal

Installation art is a genre of three-dimensional works that often are site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. These are mixed-media constructions or assemblages designed for a specific place and for a temporary period of time. This is one art form that stands apart from the others and epitomises the creativity and imagination of the human mind. We have picked three such artists who have used the India Habitat Centre as the background to display their art installations.

Satish Gupta

For the first time, sculptor Satish Gupta exhibited his complete collection of sculptures, paintings and haikus in a public space this year at the Visual Arts Gallery, India Habitat Center. One had to view Satish’s life-size work, a sleeping Buddha’s head reclined at an angle gracing the Atrium of the India Habitat Center, to understand the quiet repose of his work. Another installation, the Garuda, with its wings spread against the sky’s invitation to fly was a treat to the eyes. It certainly was larger than life in its size but was made in a way that it does not overpower. Its legs and hands are bent, perhaps in worship, or submission; each feather in each wing is so finely delineated which in itself is a work of art.

Manav Gupta

One of the leading contemporary artists, Manav Gupta is known for his versatility. Being a patriot at heart, Manav Gupta started his career on Independence Day almost two decades back. He has worked in a wide range from conceptual to multimedia, installations to ambient spaces and the canvas to sculptures but remain close to art with an essence of India. His recent public art installation titled, Excavations in Hymns of Clay deployed the quintessentially Indian potter’s produce of clay objects such as the earthen lamps and earthen cups, and transforming their individual identity. While one is lured intelligently within the sensuousness of the ‘Waterfront’ representing the River Ganga, in sculptures like the Time Machine, the fragility of clay juxtaposed with the limitedness of the ‘cup of life’ question the paradigm of time and human engagement in today’s world.

Gopal Namjoshi

Internationally-acclaimed multidimensional artist Gopal Namjoshi practices art and installations from his atelier in Gurgaon. To pursue this goal of creating art which connects everyone irrespective of any boundaries, Namjoshi has created a multitude of installations. Who would have thought worn-out, discarded stuff could be converted into some really cool pieces of art? His belief that even the most unproductive things can be brought to use made Gopal Namjoshi come up with life-like installations of birds, insects, animals and human forms. Titled Coexistence -Ecological Conversations, the exhibition has art pieces made out of rusted, damaged and dumped iron objects. His designs of peacocks made out of damaged iron objects became the talk of the town.