SUDARSHAN SHETTY: Shadow City – A life after

The Bhubaneshwar Art Trail curated by Jagannath Panda and Premjish Achari became the stuff of dreams in the temple town of Bhubaneshwar known for its magic and caprice and devotion to Lord Jagannath. Of great curiosity for me was Sudarshan Shetty's choice of place as well as his installation because amongst Indian contemporary artists no one has the capacious repertoire of history and contemporary inquisitiveness that Sudarshan has when he combines space and time and materials to create epoch-making installations. And 'Shadow City – A life after', an installation of six separate wooden structures did not disappoint in the least.

Here at the Guajhara overlooking a beautiful pond flanked by an abandoned temple stood Sudarshan's wooden installation replete with linear, lithe lines and the weaving in of both space and light and time immemorial as you glimpsed the setting sun casting its shadows. As a conceptual artist, Sudarshan is renowned for his enigmatic and often mechanised sculptural installations. In the past, his hybrid constructions have questioned the fusion of Indian and Western traditions as well as exploring domestic concerns and the notion of movement. In this case, the choice of materials is paramount and so is the idea of weaving in the transient nature of art and the structure so created.

"The underlying artifice of putting on a show of art is at the root of the work. The artist is performing a role; either literally or at a poetic distance as an exploration into the efficacy and futility of objects," adds Sudarshan. "In assuming this role a way is opened to invoke (or simply borrow) the seriousness and sincerity of a formal gesture."

Sudarshan used wooden skeletal structures which were produced with the help of local craftsmen who make objects for various religious and social ceremonies and events. This is something Sudarshan has done for years with his installations over time.

"These structures are made every year only to be dismantled after its transient function is once served," he explains. "Rice, a physical and perishable material, stands as a fundamental symbol for food and nourishment in most rituals of death."

Rice and wood become materials of both permanence and transience. Permanence in terms of the fact that we use it even today. Transience in terms of creating a context of conversations that speak of life and death. "The play between the two familiar elements rendered unfamiliar through an unlikely coming together, perhaps opens up possibilities for other meanings to emerge," opines Sudarshan.

What entices is the ability that Sudarshan has to engage us in the creation of new contexts even in materials as mundane as rice and wood. But on second thoughts there is nothing mundane here-it is born of a tradition, a referencing and a representation of a cultural ethos.

Curator Premjish Achari states: "I see Sudarshan's installation as a spiritual-architectural complex which reflects upon devotion and death. The use of rice in his work is a very direct reference to the death rituals in Hinduism whereas rice is also used in the offerings. Placing these in the skeletal wooden structures, resembling temples, Sudarshan proposes the ambiguities of rituals."

The Bhubaneshwar Art Trail inaugurated by the Chief Minister Biju Patnaik on November 18 runs for a month.