Upcoming sculptor-painter Narayan Sinha creates beauty out of waste material and gives 'recycling' a new meaning.
Old fashioned iron lock and keys, window and balcony grills - such abandoned household items or automobile scraps. Give them to Narayan Sinha, an upcoming sculpture-painter from Nalhati, a far flung hamlet in Bengal's Birbhum district, and he will turn them into objet-de-art. You can call it a metamorphosis or an evolution of a unique kind where quirky stuffs attain the stature of the exquisite.
A time when going green is the watchword, Sinha's work using recycled products, is all the more relevant. His use of metals like copper and brass which are becoming obsolete in the country also marks his contribution in upholding the cultural heritage. He has used a cart wheel as a chandelier, old window frames for the back rest of furniture. And in his recent interior designing project of transforming an old house into an art boutique named EKRU in Kolkata, he has used materials like cement, gravel, vegetable dye and cloth as raw material.
Old fashioned iron lock and keys, window and balcony grills - such abandoned household items or automobile scraps. Give them to Narayan Sinha, an upcoming sculpture-painter from Nalhati, a far flung hamlet in Bengal's Birbhum district, and he will turn them into objet-de-art. You can call it a metamorphosis or an evolution of a unique kind where quirky stuffs attain the stature of the exquisite.
A time when going green is the watchword, Sinha's work using recycled products, is all the more relevant. His use of metals like copper and brass which are becoming obsolete in the country also marks his contribution in upholding the cultural heritage. He has used a cart wheel as a chandelier, old window frames for the back rest of furniture. And in his recent interior designing project of transforming an old house into an art boutique named EKRU in Kolkata, he has used materials like cement, gravel, vegetable dye and cloth as raw material.
Creation is what has come best to Sinha since childhood. The journey started with clay modelling during school vacations. But staying at Nalhati he often faced the problem of obtaining clay, the primary raw material. His father was a dealer of automobile parts; so he often toyed with these parts and his imagination used to take flight. The result was new forms made from the unused tools and machines. After his graduation Sinha became a full time sculptor. In order to fine-tune his art he learnt anatomy, clay and charcoal painting from art students of Visva Bharati, Santiniketan. Sinha's work came into limelight with his first exhibition in 2000 at Bajaj Bhavan, Mumbai. Afterwards, there was no looking back. An array of exhibitions including the ones at Nehru Centre, Worli and Jahangir Art Gallery in Mumbai and Birla Academy of Fine Arts in Kolkata, followed. The exhibition at Birla Academy had some of his unique masks made of junk and a new trend was set.
Sinha's subjects are intrinsically traditional and Indian in essence. "I can't work on abstract forms as I can't relate to him. My subjects are emotional responses and I try to reach a Higher Being through sculpture. My other aspiration is to promote Indian art and artists. I have assistants at my workshops who were school dropouts. I gave them the necessary training and they are now artists working with me," he says.
Sinha's sculptures have already adorned Kolkata's sprawling and historic Raj Bhavan (Governor's House) and Writers' Buildings (State government headquarters).
Accolades and recognitions are not new to Sinha as his successful exhibitions in New York, Paris and many other countries have got rave reviews. Four years of research and practice and Sinha now has to his credit as many as 35 different forms of Goddess Durga made from trivia. His exhibition of the forms named 'Debi' was a huge success in Kolkata and has received invitations from the other parts of India and also rest of the world.
Sinha narrates a saga of fusion between craftsmanship and sculpture through his art. "My objective was to endow a contemporary look to the traditional forms and figures," he says. It calls for rigorous research and long hours for each of his creation which varies from three to four days to 3 months. "I spend long hours, sometimes 14 to 18 hours a day, to give shapes to my creations. Collecting and sourcing the unusual stuff was another painstaking and time consuming affair. I have gathered material from different parts of the country like Rajasthan, Gujarat, south India and so on which in turn has added diverse tinge of ethnicity to the end products" tells Sinha.
He has developed these sculptures at his large workshop at Nalhati with his students and team members. Some of these structures are as tall as 9.6 ft to 10 ft. There are some paintings of him as well on the walls to create an overall ambience.
Sinha insists on uniqueness. Not one of his work would find a repetition. It's like a boutique product. He also carefully studies different forms of traditional architecture in different parts of the country and tries to reflect them in his creations.
Sinha is versatile too. His jewellery in brass, pearl and semi precious stones which are available in different boutiques in Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Pune feature in the well-known fashion show circuit. Handmade jewellery and knick-knacks designed by him have graced Tina Ambani's Harmony Shows and are also used by fashion designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee in his shows.
An Indian at heart, Sinha incubates the dream of representing Indian ethnicity in the global arena through his creations. He further aspires to reach art to the grassroots people. "Art has always been confined to the rich and aristocrats whereas music has transcended all barriers. I as an artist dream of bridging the social gaps through art which is possible just by reviving some everyday commodity like that of a kohl-container which has immense artistic nuances in it," he says.
Sinha's subjects are intrinsically traditional and Indian in essence. "I can't work on abstract forms as I can't relate to him. My subjects are emotional responses and I try to reach a Higher Being through sculpture. My other aspiration is to promote Indian art and artists. I have assistants at my workshops who were school dropouts. I gave them the necessary training and they are now artists working with me," he says.
Sinha's sculptures have already adorned Kolkata's sprawling and historic Raj Bhavan (Governor's House) and Writers' Buildings (State government headquarters).
Accolades and recognitions are not new to Sinha as his successful exhibitions in New York, Paris and many other countries have got rave reviews. Four years of research and practice and Sinha now has to his credit as many as 35 different forms of Goddess Durga made from trivia. His exhibition of the forms named 'Debi' was a huge success in Kolkata and has received invitations from the other parts of India and also rest of the world.
Sinha narrates a saga of fusion between craftsmanship and sculpture through his art. "My objective was to endow a contemporary look to the traditional forms and figures," he says. It calls for rigorous research and long hours for each of his creation which varies from three to four days to 3 months. "I spend long hours, sometimes 14 to 18 hours a day, to give shapes to my creations. Collecting and sourcing the unusual stuff was another painstaking and time consuming affair. I have gathered material from different parts of the country like Rajasthan, Gujarat, south India and so on which in turn has added diverse tinge of ethnicity to the end products" tells Sinha.
He has developed these sculptures at his large workshop at Nalhati with his students and team members. Some of these structures are as tall as 9.6 ft to 10 ft. There are some paintings of him as well on the walls to create an overall ambience.
Sinha insists on uniqueness. Not one of his work would find a repetition. It's like a boutique product. He also carefully studies different forms of traditional architecture in different parts of the country and tries to reflect them in his creations.
Sinha is versatile too. His jewellery in brass, pearl and semi precious stones which are available in different boutiques in Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Pune feature in the well-known fashion show circuit. Handmade jewellery and knick-knacks designed by him have graced Tina Ambani's Harmony Shows and are also used by fashion designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee in his shows.
An Indian at heart, Sinha incubates the dream of representing Indian ethnicity in the global arena through his creations. He further aspires to reach art to the grassroots people. "Art has always been confined to the rich and aristocrats whereas music has transcended all barriers. I as an artist dream of bridging the social gaps through art which is possible just by reviving some everyday commodity like that of a kohl-container which has immense artistic nuances in it," he says.
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