Title: Matter of Life Size of the work: 49″ X 62″ X 39″ Materials: Up-cycled wooden table, old toys, stationeries, electronic waste, glue, cement etc Year: 2022.
This work was part of the show The Circle of Life curated by Alnoor Mita at Art Centrix Gallery New Delhi.
Title: The Shadow of Samudra Manthana Size: 95”x 48” x 44” Materials: Upcycled wood from the scrapyard, drift wood. Year: 2021
Timeline of Backwash-I
Materials: Wood collected from Industrial scrap yards, floor paint, silkscreen printing. Year: 2015-20
Timeline of Backwash -II
We built the modern world with non-renewable resources of the earth in a short time of history. if the development models of the modern world could have been ecologically balanced or more sustainable, we could have avoided the extreme climate disasters in recent times. The vast water crisis, floods in India and elsewhere, massive forest fires in Australia, Amazon forests, superstorms across the globe are among the disasters one could relate directly to the global climate crisis. With the background of global climate scenario, these two artworks Timeline of Backwash I and Timeline of Backwash II, mostly focuses on the local ecological importance, which is the Western Ghats of India. The material used to build this work is repurposed from the industrial scrap yard demonstrates its brutal use and its journey from across the globe as merely called as crate wood.
The Western Ghats is one of the ten hottest biodiversity hotspots on earth and has great importance for water security for the entire region in many ways. It influences the monsoon patterns, and many rivers flow from the Ghats to plains. Over the last few decades, this remarkable site has been witnessing rampant, and disturbing developmental activities, like hydropower projects, minings, monoculture etc. As a result, the Ghats are shrinking with devastating effects on local ecology and life.
Images from the 350-year-old pictorial volumes ‘Hortus Malabaricus’ or Garden of Malabar play a reminder role in the background on the surface of wooden structures. The wooden structures reduced in geometrical shapes render the modernist outlook and the bold graphics in grey are the reminiscence of our developmental aspiration of the present.
BAT (Bhubaneshwar Art Trail) November 2018
Title: A Homage to Hendrik van Rheede. Materials: Reclaimed packaging wood from an industrial scrap yard, glue, Silkscreen printing. Size: 103”X85”x55”. Year: 2018.
Title: Con-struction I. Material: Reclaimed packaging wood from an industrial scrap yard, recycled paper pulp, cement, wood glue etc. Size: 107”x40”x26”. Year: 2018.
Title: Con-struction II. Material: Wood collected from construction sites, recycled paper pulp, cement, wood glue etc. Size: 112”x53”x20”. Year: 2018.
Title: Con-struction III. Material: Wood collected from construction sites, recycled paper pulp, cement, aluminium, wood glue etc. Size: 88”x 97”x 23”. Year: 2018.
Title: Consumed 1. Materials: reclaimed industrial packaging wood burnt, glue, steel, and fixer. Size: 68”X52”x45”. Year: 2018.
Title: Within, Without. Materials: Reclaimed packaging wood from an industrial scrap yard, glue. Size: 55”X108”x39” Year: 2018.
Title: Impinged 1. Material: Recycled paper pulp, cement, aluminium mesh, wood glue etc. Size: 60”x68”x35”. Year: 2018.
Title: From the other end. Materials: Flatbed printing on reclaimed packing wood from an industrial scrap yard. Size: 36′′x72′′x1′′. Year: 2018.
Title: From the series of Vulnerable Guardians. Medium: Flatbed printing on reclaimed packing wood from an industrial scrap yard. Size: 14′′x20′′x1′′ each panel. Year: 2018.
Title: Constrained. Materials: Recycled paper pulp, aluminium mesh, and wood glue. Size: 80”X68”x44”. Year: 2018.
Title: Impinged II. Materials: recycled paper pulp, cement, wood glue etc. Size: 55”X108”x39”. Year: 2018.
Title: Consumed II. Materials: Burnt reclaimed industrial packaging wood, glue, fixer. Size: 54”X35”x16” Year: 2018.
This body of works explores the tacit relationship between the spread of consumerist culture and the systematic decline of natural resources. This collection of cast forms deliberately recalls the processes of mass production yet my choice of materials (wood pulp, cement, aluminium, wood glue and paint) point to the environmental cost implicit in their creation. The arrangement of animals evokes a nostalgic park that encapsulates long-lost values and the need to reclaim a workable relationship with the natural world. The juxtaposition of the animals with the guardian figures printed on wood suggests that recuperation and conscious correction can only be found if we vigilantly guard against further intrusions.
Title: In-site. Size: Max. Height 34″
Materials: Wood pulp, cement, aluminium, wood glue, floor paint and reclaimed wood.
Title: Vulnerable Guardians. Size: 20″x 14″x 1″, Materials: Digital print on reclaimed wood, floor paint.
Title: In the Dark Rain.
Materials: Paper pulp, white cement, clear paint. Size: 33″x37″x18″
Materials: Used plastic toys, wood. Size: 52″x 52″x 5″
Part of the exhibition Damned Art/Embrace Our Rivers, Goethe-Institute / Max Mueller Bhavan, Chennai, 2018
Hollow Drop, Materials: Plastic bottle tops, steel wire. 2017
At the 4th Sculpture Biennale, Sculpture by the Sea, Aarhus Denmark. 2015
Size: 7’x 10’x 12’
Materials: Nearly 100,000 plastic bottle tops and steel wire
This was a part of the group show Forms of Activism by SAHMAT, curated by Vivan Sundaram and Sasha Altaf at Rabindra Bhawan, Lalit Kala Academy, New Delhi, India (2014)
Size: 7’x 10’x 12’
Materials: Nearly 70,000 plastic bottle tops and steel wire
Arunkumar H G 