Talwar Gallery, New Delhi is pleased to announce Present Continuous, an exhibition of recent works by Ranjani Shettar. Ephemeral yet distinct, between shadows and form, Shettar’s works permeate elusiveness and a refusal to be contained by simple categorization. Her materials yield to unfamiliar realizations, as in Stretch in which wood seems to have been molded like clay, while on the main level Scent of a Sound traverses the gallery space like an unruly fragrance encompassing it like a lingering melody. The organic forms constructed with steel and muslin float in mid-air confronting the viewer as they enter, daring them to step inside and imbibe. Further, in Aureole – a multi-piece cast bronze silhouette of a threshold sweeps across space gracefully defying materiality and weight while drawing from a millennium-old tradition. Lagoon, laden with lush, rich, and dense forms created from lacquered wood immersed in depths of blue, is indulgent and inviting.
"Seduced by their simplicity and openness, our experience of Ranjani's works yields humility and a surrender to their splendor."
Shettar’s use of traditional and modern crafts to sculpt natural and industrial materials accentuates the tenuous relationship between industry and nature. She resolves this by uncovering the beauty within their co existence and in the collaboration between man and nature. In creating environments with sculpture and installation, Shettar fuses the two realms together with dynamic yet graceful forms and textures, revealing the spectacle and magnanimity of natural phenomena. Seduced by their simplicity and openness, our experience of her works yields humility and a surrender to their splendor.