BANGALORE: Fifty-six frames to haunt you and tease your brain -- that’s ‘Six Drops’, a series of digital art works by Sudarshan Shetty. The Mangalore born and Mumbai-based artist is a popular name in the field of contemporary and avant-garde conceptual art. His works have not only been featured across many galleries in India, but they have also made entry into art museums abroad such as Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Japan, Korea, Wolverhampton, Lisbon and even the world famous Tate Modern of London. His recent work, ‘Six Drops’ at Gallerskye, St Marks Road, till May 25.
A glance at the first few black and white 12x19 inches Inkjet prints on Hahnemeuhle Bamboo paper will get your imagination rolling. They are negative images showcasing a few people under a mystic, towering hall; these elements remain static throughout all the frames (except the four prints in 23x33 inches). In these shadowy images, there’s only one element in mobile form — the falling ‘fluid drop’. As you scan through the array of frames you see an animated picture of six white and red drops falling on the floor. Then follows larger and more complex frames. The lump of accumulated drops is presented in a virtual format, with a web of defined contouring lines. And the final image, showing three man on an elevated level.
The works have a gloomy and an eerie effect, and when the blood-red drops come into action, they evoke further complex thoughts. Too abstract an art, for many a layman. However, if you are an art connoisseur, you may identify the gigantic hall — Tate Modern Museum, which is touted as the Mecca of modern art. And if you happen to have witnessed Shetty’s previous work, you are bound to relate with the blood and reality factor.
“The white drops signifies ‘semen’ and red ones ‘blood’; these are the very base of biological process and manhood,” says Shetty who believes in producing reality. According to him, “The fluid drops represent the six enemies — kama (lust), krodha (anger), mada (ego), matsara(jealousy), lobha (greed) and moha (attachment) -- that one needs to give up in order to achieve moksha as per the Eastern philosophy.” He has creatively used this philosophy in Six Drops, with the fall of each drop signifying what must be shed in order to get something. As the art is set in Tate Modern, the focus is more on the artists.
