VIJAYAWADA: Scrap artists from the State are making a killing as the art has emerged as a novel form in the past two years. There are scrap sculptures that sell in the range of Rs 2 to Rs 50 lakhs. “Each scrap sculpture is made out of discarded automobile parts and weighs a tonne or more. They are in great demand and command an exorbitant price. A piece may even cost around Rs 2 to Rs 3 lakh,” said Siva Nagi Reddy, Director, Cultural Centre of Amaravarti and Vijayawada.
“There are artists who can make a whopping Rs 50 lakh from a single sculpture.We are making abstract and conceptual art pieces. Recently, we made 31 sculptures and they have been stored in the RTC depot. Of the 31 artists, 28 are from Andhra Pradesh. There were evocative pieces like the one that depicted a family and poor fisherwomen. Sculptors are choosing various themes and automobile scrap is the best medium. There is a growing demand for the art form and the number of pieces being made will also grow,” said Imran Ali, the artist who curated the selection process for the construction of a scrap art in Vijayawada police station and also for the RTC depot exhibition.
The government had paid remuneration to the scrap artists for the work on the 31 sculptures exhibited at the RTC depot. “We made the sculptures for the RTC depot exhibition for our own satisfaction and as a service to the public. The sculptures can be sold at much higher rates outside. However, we wanted to do this for a reasonable price as we simply wanted exchange of ideas and a show of creativity. We completed the 31 sculptures in six days,” said A Hari Prasad, another sculptor, who founded Art Morph, which had worked in association with the Cultural Centre of Amaravati and Vijayawada to make the the scrap art in the park near the Police Control Room.