For the last couple of years I have been working with the crafts and folks arts in multiple different regions of India. This journey for me began with revisiting Indian mythology which lead me to making a series of monumental ‘asura’ sculptures in metal. The ‘asura’ - demon in Indian mythology fascinated me as in all stories it was the demon that was wronged and forced to wage war. One theory is that history got mythologised over time and the invading victors became gods while the indigenous people became demons.
The form of these sculptures was deeply influenced from terracotta horses made in various parts of the subcontinent for over a thousand years. These horses are still made and are offered to local deities as part of ritual. It is believed that this practice could date back to a post Indus Civilisation time period. They same time period where the theory suggest that history got mythologised.
After the metal series I went and worked with these folk artisans and created a series of terracotta sculptures with them. The attached images are the third round of evolution of those forms and are maquettes which I am hoping to disperse around the city. These maquettes are placed such that people can chance upon them and take back with them. Generating a links and leaving imprints. Introducing the primitive, back into our visual vocabulary.
