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REVIEW
Lava of molten metal
Art writer Natasha Baruah surveys the recent exhibition of bronze sculptures that the sculptor Mrinalini Mukherjee held at Gallery Espace, New Delhi recently, observing the how the artist’s work undergoes a subtle phase of transition while retaining the essential, salient features of her earlier works.
The works of the sculptor Mrinalini Mukherjee, at various stages of her career, have consistently been referred to as fecund, sensual or organic. These comparisons have been drawn owing to her protracted engagement with natural fibers such as hemp or jute, of plant and human forms much like totem effigies. Her sculptures, mostly massive in size, were a result of the craft and material based instructions by K.G Subramanyan in
‘Lava,’ the recent show by her, held at Gallery Espace, New Delhi, had showcased a new body of her works, done in bronze, including a couple of reliefs. Although aware that for the past two years she had been working in the medium of ceramics, nothing prepared me for the bronze sculptures on display at the show.
Of the 30 odd sculptures in the show, four or five of were bronze reliefs, titled ‘Landscapes,’ and hung on the wall. That itself was most startling, for till now the artist had mostly used the free-standing format rather than a flattened, hung-on-the-wall one. This made for a very interesting take on her part. Hung on the wall as they were, the artist had not framed them, with the result that the ‘Landscapes,’ which comprise little whorls and eddies of molten metal, seem to ripple and spill out of the perceived confines of the work. And in the patina of the surface, a whole body of colours was visible, from blue to green, and rust to sandy hues, adding further dimensions to the meaning of the term ‘Landscape.’
The present series of works have been born out of a three-year-long engagement with the medium, and it is with interest that I note the points of convergence and divergence with her previous concerns, which the medium has evoked.
In Gallery Espace, the larger part of the display was held in the basement, and as I descended the stairs, I stopped for a moment to gaze down at the works laid out in a seemingly haphazard manner. Much like her hemp sculptures, Mrinalini had displayed the works sans pedestal or a mounting of any kind. Bearing titles such as ‘Clusters,’ ‘Outcrops’ and ‘Forest Flames,’ they occupied different sections of the room, at short distances from each other, and were cast in varying degrees of half or focused lights.
One had to navigate a path among the works, and it began to dawn on me that the sculptures were no longer independent pieces of works. Instead, the entire body of works there in that room formed one whole, existing in conjunction with each other, seeming to sprout from the very ground on which they lay.
As the titles reveal, Mrinalini has continued with her interest in the organic rhythms of nature. The sculptures rise up tall from the bare ground, or burst forth like lush vegetation creating a sensation akin to walking in the woods; and the indigo blue walls of the gallery contrasted oddly with the dull bronze of the sculptures to form an effect, at once surreal and fantastical.
However, what drew me most to the show was the manner in which Mrinalini addressed the medium of bronze. Much has been written and said about the many textures that she creates in her painstakingly knotted natural fiber sculptures. With the fibers twisted and twined at every point, the end result was of a hardened leathery mantle, a far cry from the limp fibers from which it was fashioned. Therefore, textures obviously hold a deeper connotation for Mrinalini Mukherjee, playing a role that goes beyond the mere ‘skin’ of a work. Which is why, when she works with the medium of bronze casting too, the sculptures reveal on their surface, an indefinite array of uneven peels, layers, gentle ripples, and smooth curves. Mrinalini’s bronze work here is analogous with the strength of molten ‘lava’ as it flows after it has burst forth from a volcano. It is that fleeting moment in time, when an element exits in one form before it moves and acquires that of another. The lava meanders and pours down, acquiring different forms and blazing forth a path of its own, before it finally cools into an igneous rock, and becomes another element of nature again.
(Natasha Baruah is a New Delhi-based art writer. She holds a BFA in Art History from Santiniketan and MVA in Art History and Aesthetics from M.S.University,
