Artist Sudarshan Shetty owns a unique language that transcends the traditional boundaries of art

Artist Sudarshan Shetty is renowned for his intriguing and thought-provoking works of art. A conceptual artist best known for his enigmatic sculptural installations, Shetty has been a student of the Sir J. J. School of Art and has been recognized as one of the most innovative Indian artists. His works have been exhibited worldwide, including the Tate Modern, London; the Guggenheim Museum, USA; the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Japan; the National Gallery of Modern Art, Delhi; the Centre Pompidou, Paris; and the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel, amongst others.

His recent exhibition ‘One Life Many’ reinforces and showcases his remarkable ability to weave a complex narrative that invites the audience to engage with his art. His innate ability to blend the real with the surreal often urges the audience into an introspective journey of their own. ‘One Life Many,’ inspired by a quote from an interview with Pandit Kumar Gandharva — “We are individually multiple” explores contemporary reawakening after a period of isolation and introspection, using a well-known myth that recounts the transformation of a sage into a woman, wife and mother. The immersive exhibit is replete with installations, film projections,
physical elements to create an engaging and reflective experience that delves into the possibility of carrying an ‘other’ or many others within ourselves. Here’s an excerpt from the interview:

The exhibition is intriguing. The narrative pulls you in, encouraging you to interact and interpret the work of art. It’s almost like walking into someone’s dreamscape, where different narratives come together to form an interesting story. Tell us, what inspired you?

Sudarshan Shetty: The seed of this exhibition lies in a folk story that I heard a long time ago that comes together in a video and a suite of objects to be seen in a certain order of display in a way of retelling the story in as many ways as possible. In the story, a man goes into a pool of water, takes a dip and comes out as a woman. Circumstances draw her back into the same pool of water, and she comes back as a man. It urges you to question reality and one’s own identity. It dwells on the contradictions of life. It draws your attention to multiple realities. There is a play of time here and also the idea of an open-ended story that is open to different interpretations. Can you be multiple within yourself? There is a possibility of being the other or the others within the self, and if that is so, what is the true self? What is real and what is not? This exhibition was my attempt to retell that story.

Retelling is the lifeblood of oral traditions, ensuring a sense of community and recalling wisdom that has evolved through the centuries. How else can we make sense of our present? In my role as an artist, I would like to see my work as a mediation between how I am conditioned to belong in a structure that is dictated by the Western canons, and a life, as I see it, from where I belong, outside of it.

The first reaction is that of shock when you are confronted by an extremely visceral sculpture of a dog. As the exhibition unravels, the viewer goes through a transformative journey. Tell us a little more about the work.

SS: I see ‘One Life Many’ as a suite of various confrontations with the idea of ‘self’ and also thinking of self in its various possibilities of being, one may find within oneself. A lot of my work is about giving life to something that is inanimate or even on the edge of demise. I often ask myself if it is possible to reverse things. It’s sort of an upside-down world. And as the narrative progresses, the viewer’s interpretation adds to the entire sequence of events.

I work a lot with found and gathered objects. In that sense, we are all gathered objects; we are all untold stories. For me, art is about retelling stories or forming your own versions. Finding multiple realities and questioning absolute truths.

What inspires you?

SS: I have been trying to look back at the aesthetic strategies that are embedded within some poetic and musical traditions to inform my work in general. I believe that this effort may provide some clues, even if partially, for me to unravel my present. In my role as an artist, I would like to see my work as a mediation between how I am conditioned to belong in a structure that is dictated by Western canons, and a life, as I see it, from where I belong.