Lot 28: Sudarshan Shetty , Untitled mechanical sculpture with dentures

mechanical sculpture with dentures

measurements fully extended 69 in. alternate measurements fully extended 175.3 cm.

Art India, Volume XI, Issue I, Quarter I, 2006, p. 106 illustrated

executed 2005
The defining feature of Sudarshan Shetty's work is its thoroughly iconoclastic nature. As critic Anupa Mehta remarks, 'Obvious symbolism is an anathema as far as his work goes. He prefers instead to allow himself and others the space to flirt with chance.' Sudarshan's ultimate objective is to give viewers the opportunity to read personalized meanings into his work and to discover the lyricism inherent in his 'part-poignant, part-macabre oeuvre.' ("Beyond Cultural Barriers," World Sculpture News, Volume 5, Number 4, Autumn 1999, p. 35). Shetty's playful sculpture of mechanical dentures is as seductive as it is eerie. While the human figure is conspicuously absent, the moving sculpture (though not figurative) appears to be a living, breathing anthropomorphic 'creature' that 'understands' and responds to the human presence. The artist has taken an item of everyday use and pushed it far beyond the boundaries of its perceived utility. An object that is taken for granted thereby becomes a conduit for exploring real and simulated relationships between human beings and their surroundings and forces the viewer to 'engage with the world of things and with the world of sensations with greater respect and alertness.' (Marta Jakimowicz, "The Secret Life of Objects," Art India, Volume XI, Issue I, Quarter I, 2006, p. 107). 'The allure of Shetty's work lies in his continuing search for newer images, new means with which to reinvest in and to restate the mundane. The open-ended quality of his symbolism...lifts conventional images to planes that encourage new associations. Yet, in the main, it is a calculated uncertainty as well as a deliberate refusal to allow for pat responses that makes his work both appealing and disquieting. It affords the opportunity to experience life as viewed from the fine edge separating subversion from transcendence.' ("Beyond Cultural Barriers," World Sculpture News, Volume 5, Number 4, Autumn 1999, p. 39).