Fire and sweat — these are the two constants in the life of Aby Joe Mathew, a young boy from Vallarpadam in Kochi, who, in his pastime, wills unyielding metals into shapes that both shock and delight.
Aby’s affinity with the craft began at 18, when he was working at a firm that dealt with stage lighting and sound. One day, whilst tending to some repair works on set, he noticed that industrial glue had fallen on two nuts that he was working with. Though he tried hard, he couldn’t separate them.
“I was scared of being scolded, but this was quickly dispelled by the growing fascination of seeing shapes in the now-joined nuts,” Aby recalls. It stayed with him, and later, after returning home, the youngster took some metal parts and used similar glue to make even more shapes. “Soon, I was making miniature pieces, especially vehicles like Harley-Davidson motorcycles,” he explains.
This love for automobiles is not spontaneous. The youngster started drawing in his school days. Initially, these were all on the end pages of his notebooks. Soon, he graduated to drawing lab records for his friends. He filled one whole notebook with body designs of automobiles, especially cars.
“Those days, I thought I would be working in some field that deals with cars, like automobile engineering or something,” Aby says. But after his father’s death, the youngster had no choice but to find a job, and that too as soon as possible. So, he decided to join an Industrial Training Institute.
By 18, he had finished an electrical and electronics course and started working. “During Covid, I lost my job as events and stage programmes came to a standstill. Briefly, I worked as a medical representative. Then, just last year, I worked as an art teacher in a school,” he adds.
Throughout all, he was also helping out in his family’s small bakery that functions in front of their home.
In his short life, he has gone through many changes, in between completing Plus Two and even joining a Bachelor’s course in IGNOU. “But the one constant in my life is art.”
It’s rare to find Aby without his sketchbook. In the bakery, there is a desk and chair and in the corner, where Aby is either drawing or tinkering with tiny metal parts. During his medical representative days, he used to draw while waiting for an appointment with doctors. Every night after work, like a routine, he transforms those drawings into miniature art.
He also found an old cycle from a workshop — an old Hercules Roadster model. And he repaired it, rebuilt it and painted it with Warliart. “It represents things I love in my life, the tale of how I found the cycle, things I’m passionate about, all in tiny figures. That cycle is my companion now,” he says.
“That’s how I deal with everything. Be it sadness, depressive mood, I start making art. By the time I finish, I have come out of that funk.” And his cycle, the many artworks kept in his home, “which is now a mini gallery,” the drawings that hung on the walls and his bakery... All are testaments to his dedication and passion.
In his hand, metal bends like anything. Boats, tractors, motorcycles, guns, spiders, butterflies... There is no dearth of subjects for him. Sometimes shapes are abstract, too. “Well, I like it. This search for new forms, shapes and textures. The way the metals stick together and become something. It’s like finding animals among the clouds,” he smiles.
He collects scrap metal for all his art from the various automobile workshops and junkyards in the city. Sometimes, he leaves the rust as it is. “There is an unvarnished beauty to the rusty surfaces. Art doesn’t always have to be polished,” he says.
Aby also found out and then joined Urban Sketchers a couple of years ago. A collective that loves art just like Aby. “Every Sunday, we meet and paint in the many corners of the city,” he says. Just two weeks after joining, he became part of the admin group of the collective, his enthusiasm was palpable.
Now, at 24, he has decided to spread his love for art and metal to others. “I’m organising workshops at my home. People can register and come to the location to learn tinkering with metals. This inspiration came with my teaching stint. I realised I love it when others learn what I know and make their own art,” he says.
He accepts only six people per session. And inspire them to find shapes amid the hard metals. He doesn’t tell them what to make, he makes sure they all make something that they like. “ It’s fascinating to watch.”
Aby is now working on a model of a car, a vintage image is already formed in his mind. “It might take two to three weeks to finish, but soon it will be complete,” he signs off.
