A Reading Path Down a Rabbit Hole: Alwar Balasubramaniam

Sculpture Magazine

The place where I work now is in Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu, in southern India, and it is a scenic wonder, with mountains and rivers. When water flows from the mountains, it collects in small depressions and forms lakes. The lakes then start to dry, leaving traces of natural colors and water. I tried to capture that by positioning the canvas at a controlled angle to ensure the distribution of pigments; then nature played its part.

I also want to draw—simple, plain drawing showing the quietness of it all.

Under current, 2016. Pigment, soil, and fiberglass, 2 elements, 36 x 89.5 x 3 in. and 58.5 x 70 x 3 in. Photo: Courtesy the artist and Talwar Gallery, NY/New Delhi

TED

Appearing as a pile of human skin cast to the floor, this sculpture made of sandstone belies its material. To produce it, the artist recast a plaster form of his own body using fiberglass and molded rubber…He describes these as “traces” and “signs of a former presence … the sculpture is nothing but a trace of myself.” (The Met)

Talwar Gallery

In an interview with First City, Bala is quoted as saying: ’I remember, in my first show in New York they asked, ‘where is the Indian-ness in your work?’ Now, the same people, after having watched the body of my work, say, ‘there is too much of Indian philosophy in your work.’ They’re looking for a superficial skin-level Indian-ness, which I’m not about’. (Talwar Gallery)

Mint

Now, most of the collectors of his [Balasubramaniam] work outside India “come to us because of the quality of the art and not the artist’s passport,” says Talwar.

He spent those years working with and learning from different artists, “not only from the so-called fine arts”, but also designers and signboard artists, at screen-printing units, and in the library. “It was not even a choice,” says Bala of his decision to be an artist. “This was the only thing I could do.”

India 20

If you leave footprints, people can see that you have walked, but if they can’t see the traces, then they assume that you haven’t walked at all (Balasubramaniam)

Alwar Balasubramaniam, Study for a liquid mountain, 2017–18, fiberglass, iron, 111 × 56 × 56”.