BENGALURU: When art comes with a message, it’s more beautiful,” says Bheemaiah K K, who makes eco-walking sticks and eco-installations. He has honed his skills in making a variety of huge installations using junk materials. Started in 2017, it is the third consecutive year that Bheemaiah is going to present his art work at Echoes of Earth, a green music festival.
“I first exhibited a 25 ft owl with areca nut leaves and junk metals. I’m not a trained artist, but I always wanted to do something different. When I got a call from the event organisers, I thought I should believe in them. If they don’t trust me, why would they call me?” says the 35-year-old, who also added that he has a team of 43 members. “I’m the wolf of my smart pack. The entire team works tirelessly and brilliantly to bring out something creative out of very few resources.”
This year, Bheemaiah will be making an animatronics King Kong gorilla of 30-ft height using coir. “We are getting coir from Tamil Nadu. For the body, we buy new metal to give a fine shape to the art work, everything else will be junk metals.
We go to Palace Road, Shivaji Nagar, KR Market to collect these metals. After conducting events, people throw junks, especially at Palace Ground. So we have collaborated with some people and organisations to collect the materials. By December 3, we will start working on the King Kong installation. All installations are unique and in one piece, we don’t repeat our works,” he explains.
Apart from installations, he also makes personalised walking sticks, using wood collected from his plantation in Kodagu, or while offroading, floods and even landslides. “Everything on this earth is useful in one way or the other. That’s my belief,” he adds.
The artist works with corporates and event management companies to make installations and one of the challenges, while working for clients, is the ideology clash. “Recently, a client asked me to make a huge installation, which shows the Kargil war field. I went to the site and found that the space is too small to put up an installation that the client had suggested. A lot of times, mindsets don’t match in some projects. But whatever I’m doing, I’m really happy with it,” he concludes.
Echoes of Earth will be held on Dec 7 and 8 at Embassy International Riding School, Yelahanka.