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Lot Essay
Ranjani Shettar’s contemporary sculptural practice is based in Karnataka, India, and focuses on the phenomenological relationship between humans and the space they occupy. The artist combines industrial, manmade and organic materials like wood, beeswax, automotive paint and natural dyes to celebrate the beauty of rural India while drawing attention to the degradation of its natural environment. “As a viewer you are struck by Shettar’s play with light as with her understanding of the extents of gravity. Her preferred materials – beeswax, wood, stone, tamarind seed paste, saw dust – are all sourced from her immediate surroundings and range from the mundane to the unexpected. It is evident that she enjoys working with organic elements. Even her works, which don’t directly emulate nature, somehow induce connections with the natural world” (P. Ray, ‘Inside Outside’, Arts Illustrated, April-May 2015, p. 43).
In the present lot, titled Stonewalls bloom, Shettar seems to reference the delicate flowering plants that cling to stone walls around the countryside, highlighting one of the many symbiotic relationships that continue to evolve between the natural and the manmade. When they bloom, these plants or creepers bring their host-surface alive with color, and Shettar’s wall-mounted work, executed in muslin dyed with pomegranate skin, tamarind seed paste and lacquer, skillfully expresses this moment of beauty and wonder. The artist notes, “In my practice, I am interested in space, materials, and balance, all of which are very physical aspects in the process of art-making. These concerns are rendered visually in floating, light, and delicate forms: in which the physical aspects of nature and natural phenomena can be recreated, reimagined, and continually explored – investigating nature and tradition and its resonance within contemporary life” (Artist statement, C. de Zegher, Ranjani Shettar: Between the sky and earth, New Delhi, 2018, p. 11).
While Shettar’s sculptures resonate with Western Minimalism, her emphasis on Indian techniques and materials make them distinctive. “From early on the artist created non-traditional sculptures with materials and processes infused with history and tradition. Ranjani grew up in Southern India, where she still lives and works in the countryside, amongst edifices that have endured time as well as practices refined over centuries. Situating here, Ranjani has been able to draw upon the past, to extract form and beauty from nature to create works that not only connect across time but traverse the boundaries of culture, geography and possibilities” (D. Talwar, Between the sky and earth, 2014).
The Usher III Initiative is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit medical research organization dedicated to finding a cure for Usher Syndrome type III, a devastating genetic disorder that causes deaf-blindness. By mid-life, people with this rare disease are often completely deaf and legally blind. Currently, there are no therapeutic options to diminish or halt the disabling sensory loss it causes. Because orphan diseases like USH3 impact small patient populations, resources for medical innovation and drug development are not readily available. This unmet need incentivized Cindy Elden and her father, Richard Elden, to found the The Usher III Initiative almost 20 years ago. Over time, basic scientific research funded by the Initiative led to the discovery of a potential treatment for the disease. Proceeds from this lot will support critical next steps as the Initiative moves towards clinical trials in patients with USH3.
In the present lot, titled Stonewalls bloom, Shettar seems to reference the delicate flowering plants that cling to stone walls around the countryside, highlighting one of the many symbiotic relationships that continue to evolve between the natural and the manmade. When they bloom, these plants or creepers bring their host-surface alive with color, and Shettar’s wall-mounted work, executed in muslin dyed with pomegranate skin, tamarind seed paste and lacquer, skillfully expresses this moment of beauty and wonder. The artist notes, “In my practice, I am interested in space, materials, and balance, all of which are very physical aspects in the process of art-making. These concerns are rendered visually in floating, light, and delicate forms: in which the physical aspects of nature and natural phenomena can be recreated, reimagined, and continually explored – investigating nature and tradition and its resonance within contemporary life” (Artist statement, C. de Zegher, Ranjani Shettar: Between the sky and earth, New Delhi, 2018, p. 11).
While Shettar’s sculptures resonate with Western Minimalism, her emphasis on Indian techniques and materials make them distinctive. “From early on the artist created non-traditional sculptures with materials and processes infused with history and tradition. Ranjani grew up in Southern India, where she still lives and works in the countryside, amongst edifices that have endured time as well as practices refined over centuries. Situating here, Ranjani has been able to draw upon the past, to extract form and beauty from nature to create works that not only connect across time but traverse the boundaries of culture, geography and possibilities” (D. Talwar, Between the sky and earth, 2014).
The Usher III Initiative is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit medical research organization dedicated to finding a cure for Usher Syndrome type III, a devastating genetic disorder that causes deaf-blindness. By mid-life, people with this rare disease are often completely deaf and legally blind. Currently, there are no therapeutic options to diminish or halt the disabling sensory loss it causes. Because orphan diseases like USH3 impact small patient populations, resources for medical innovation and drug development are not readily available. This unmet need incentivized Cindy Elden and her father, Richard Elden, to found the The Usher III Initiative almost 20 years ago. Over time, basic scientific research funded by the Initiative led to the discovery of a potential treatment for the disease. Proceeds from this lot will support critical next steps as the Initiative moves towards clinical trials in patients with USH3.