Glass sculptures expo turns a major draw

Banjara Hills: Kalakriti Art Gallery is organising an exhibition showcasing glass sculptures by artist Sisir Sahana. The artworks were produced during a residency programme in Pittsburgh Glass Center, United States. The project supported by Kalakriti Art Gallery. The exhibition was inaugurated at the Gallery on October 11.

Sahana says, "I am searching within layers of crystalline and non-crystalline soil to see myself. I do not see any god of magical power, but see the power of nature, nature's geological phenomena. I talk to them in visual language, performing language while drawing, moulding, fusing glass, casting glass, polishing. Physical activities synchronize with one form in time and space."

The art in the material is formed through a molten process but I moulded the process, shaped every movement of its material nature. The red lava came through me; it is that which I fused, that I cast. Most people make glass from a mixture of silica, lime, soda, borax etc. Images grow in glass.

But he said he wondered: "What glass art is it? Mesopotamian? Egyptian? Renaissance? Impressionist? Expressionist? Modern? or Post Modern? Why don't we treat the material as it behaves in different processes of making? Is use of glass material still conservative in terms of today's art practice? Does glass have to be polished or look sophisticated in its physical form? Can glass carry contextualized dialogue in its globally accepted sophisticated nature? Why should the artist answer! Let me cast myself."

Sahana engages with the wasted objects thrown away by other artists/artisans. They create and break while making. They break their thoughts. "I pick up and recreate in remolding. I use my own pre-used objects. Integrate them. Reignite and recycle to recreate. Gradually, glass starts holding independent creative ideals. Art in artists evolves into an inter-relationship between material and concept.

Glass: a medium which is still uncommon in art fraternity in India, is most dear to me," he thus explained her medium, which is a tough one to work with. Some say glass is a quarrelsome wife. Glass is a medium which is brittle, crystalline/non crystalline, fragile, transparent/translucent. Nevertheless, it carries my everyday correspondences with nature. The exhibition is on view till November 5.