From brokenness, comes art: Sudarshen Shetty exhibition

To be broken is often to also be abandoned or neglected. Artist Sudarshan Shetty, however, thinks of brokenness as possibility, and has used pieces of broken cups and plates in his art that is displayed at an exhibition here.

The canvas of this Mumbai-based artist has never been limited to brushes and paints. He has experimented with "kinetic and mechanic" energy to let his artwork "talk" to viewers.

Carrying forward this tradition, Shetty's exhibition, titled "Every Broken Moment, Piece by Piece," has taken in its sweep the specific as well as the transforming quality of all substance. it opened here Sunday.

Using broken ceramic pieces of cups, plates, jars or vases and re-creating similar structures by using wood, the artist says "new life" is but an extension of what has been.

"It is not possible to reclaim everything in life, but in this space I have tried to bring together objects that are extremely different, but bind well, to recreate a structure, or life. It is open to interpretation, how you feel it and see it is up to you," Shetty told IANS.

"I have used cheap ceramics, broken them, taken random pieces and fixed them with wood to recreate something that was there, but is still new in many ways," he said, adding that much depends on one's outlook to life.

Shetty's oeuvre requires enormous space - for its many dynamics to work, for its many shades to be observed, and for large-scale wooden structures to fit in. GallerySke in the Connaught Place fills all these requirements perfectly.

The exhibition is open to public from Jan 13 to March 2.

The exhibition also has an engaging video piece that is non-linear and opens many gateways for interpretation.

While collectors usually buy art as an investment, Shetty's artwork comes with an expiry date.

"Machines can stop working any time, but I wanted to introduce the concept of vulnerability to the collectors. Some do fear, it (artwork) might stop working after sometime, but aren't all objects bound to change meaning after some point of time," Shetty asks.

"I feel a true collector is someone who doesn't buy the object but the intention. How and what you buy depends on your intentions, not the object," he said.