Vishwanath Mallabadi Davangere with his artworks created from e-waste.
Vishwanath Mallabadi Davangere with his artworks created from e-waste.

Trash to treasure

Meet the artist who hoards e-waste for a good reason, turning it into pieces of art

BENGALURU: Do you know what happens to your discarded computer keyboard or the electric board? If it reaches artist Vishwanath Mallabadi Davangere, it’s  upcycled into a spider, wall art or even a human head... You can see it to believe it at Artem Fusion, an ongoing exhibition at Sublime Art Gallery, UB City. The show, which continues till March 10, showcases upcycled art and installations made of e-waste. 

Davangere’s love for e-waste can clearly be seen in his works. Originally hailing from Chitradurga, he was raised in New Delhi and went ahead and earned his Bachelors inFine Arts in applied arts in ’87  from Delhi University. He started his career as a computer video graphic artist in the media industry.

He grew up in a creative household, watching his father late D M Shambhu, renowned painter and sculptor. It’s no wonder that art runs in his blood. “Doing a B.Sc in entomology helped me visualise art forms in e-waste,” says Davangere, adding that the first thing he made out of e-waste was a spider in 2003 and there has been no looking back.

The obsession further increased when he moved to Bengaluru and started working in the RnD department in Wipro and came across many machine parts. “There were so many parts and colours that I came across and it just gave wings to my vivid imagination,” says the 58-year-old artist. From his collection, one of the most talked about part is his interpretation of Van Gogh’s ‘Starry Night’ with e-waste.

“In Van Gogh’s painting, the basic element is a balanced brush stroke. I have used different watts of resistors in an electric register current and voltage. A register is a cylindrical component which comes in various colours,” he says, adding that he has been doing these kind of art works for the past eight years.  

While recycling and upcycling are the buzzwords these days, he feels that turning trash into art is way better than recycling. “The traditional form of recycling is to collect precious metals like copper, gold, etc, but for that you need a huge amount of e-waste. But by turning them into art, I am actually adding a value to it,” he explains. 
 
Artem Fusion at Sublime Art Gallery, UB City, will continue till March 10

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