Sudarshan Shetty

Artville artist of the day: Sudarshan Shetty

Title: Lost Bodies
Year: 2007
Size: 71.5 x 47 in | 181.6 x 119.4 cm
Medium: Mixed media on Canvas

Sudarshan Shetty's body of work is animated by the twin themes of spectacle and disenchantment, idealism and actuality. The fact that these concepts are frequently at odds with each other has rendered the artist's output, whether painting, sculpture, photography or installation, particularly engaging. "Many of his works evoke strongly a fleeting memory of another space, other interiors, long lost except to that special faculty of memory that we all possess," (Radhika Desai, "All that is solid melts into air", Af-fair: 15 Contemporary Indian Artists, 1x1 Art Gallery, Dubai, 2008, pg. 57).

In Lost Bodies, a surreal architectural interior with an absurd rendering of a skeletal tyrannosaur - a common occurrence in the artist's body of work - evokes the dual dichotomy of spectacle and emptiness, which critic Anupa Mehta calls "a poetic of loss." (Anupa Mehta, "Unsteady Equilibrium", India 20: Conversations with Contemporary Artists, Mapin Publishing, Ahmedabad, 2007, pg. 188).

"For over a decade now, he has been fascinated by the mechanics of toys and mechanized objects. Drawing upon the skill of craftsmen and technicians, Shetty creates large, yet immensely fragile sculptures: the evocation of unsteadiness is as intentional as the precarious balance of these gargantuan creatures" (Ibid., pg. 188).

Courtest: www.saffronart.com
#artvilleartistoftheday #sudarshanshetty #mixedmediaoncanvas #mixedmedia #art #artville