"A second pulse against the skin – colour as second skin" – this is how I was introduced to the world of Venkat Bothsa’s art at his latest exhibition in Calcutta. A painted assortment of literally everything that meets the eye – an amalgam of nature and technology - Venkat Bothsa’s work is all about vibrant colours. For those who came in late, Bothsa belongs to the upcoming breed of South Asian artists such as, Sajal Patra, Anasuya Chakraborty, Pradosh Swain, Gadadhar Ojha and Anup Kumar Chand who are gradually winning admiration within the art circuit in India and abroad.
"I am an academician; a sculptor at heart", says he. We’re sitting amidst his latest collection Second Skin at the Seagull Foundation for the Arts, Calcutta - one that he took 2 years to put together. Unbelievably, he makes all the sculptures himself. In the soft light of the exhibition hall, the colours seem to leap out from them.
Bothsa specialises in fibreglass sculptures; it’s his style of art. He first makes sculptures in clay and applies fibreglass on the dried mould. He paints on the fibreglass and laminates the sculpture after that. An interesting feature of his art is the way he paints on his sculptures. First he puts together a collage with newspaper and magazine cuttings. Then, he transfers the collage onto a slide, beams it on the bare sculpture and paints along the lines, shapes and colours of the reflection of the projected collage – this way, he gets the dimensions right.
"The vocabulary of my art is very simple; you can interpret my work in any way that you like", says Bothsa. His work is generally oriented towards natural themes, and a lot of his sculptures reflect his concerns over the dwindling eco-system. "Simple symbolism" is how he describes his art; he explores themes such as nature versus industrialisation or the woman as an emblematic expression of Mother Nature.
From 1987 onwards, Bothsa executed nearly 300 sculptures of various kinds in Andhra Pradesh alone for public and private commissions. At the same time, he also designed and composed four tribal art museums with hundreds of life-size sculptures for the Museum of Habitat at Araku Valley for the Integrated Tribal Development Authority at Vishakapatnam, the Nehru Centenary Museum at Hyderabad for the Tribal Welfare Department and a crafts museum at Silparamam for the Tourism Department of Hyderabad. This was until 2005.
He spent 2005 in introspection. "I was enjoying art only for myself", he says. But working with the government was a cumbersome experience; he was yearning to branch out on his own. He remained closely associated with the world of art, throughout, of course, having been invited to several sculptors’ symposia all over the country. He also participated in various group exhibitions – at the Lalit Kala Akademy 41st National Exhibition of Art in New Delhi in 1998, Crimson Art Gallery, Mumbai and at Gallery Sumukha in Chennai in 2006.
He was a science student and not an exceptional one at that, on his own admission, before Andhra University advertised fine arts courses in sculpture and painting. Having spent his childhood close to nature in the tribal regions of Andhra Pradesh, he frequently encountered prehistoric art in run down temples and other architectural ruins. Sculpture always fascinated him, so he took up the fine arts course in Andhra University.
But the sculpture course never took off and he passed out with a Bachelor’s degree in painting. He went on to complete his Master’s in Fine Arts from Benares Hindu University. A subdued overlap of painting and sculpture in his works is what one sees then. "I’m rooted in art", he says.
Bothsa’s greatest inspiration has been tribal art. Having lived all over Andhra Pradesh as his father had a transferable job, he spent long periods of time with the tribals and learning their forms of art. He collected a lot of cultural material from these experiences. For example, tribals paint on three-dimensional objects such as boulders and stones, an attribute that lends a realistic quality to their art. He would often camp in old temples, studying their sculptures for hours at end. His fascination with prehistoric art in Mahendragiri, Kharnool and Tirupati, to name a few places, led him to create his own brand of sculpture – one that successfully blends technical finesse and artistic imagery.
He veered into the mainstream art scene in 2006 with his first collection, Enigma, which he showed at Gallery Sumukha in Bangalore in 2007. A sensational debut that burst into the contemporary art scene, this was sculpture at its peculiar best. The sensuality that he lent to his work was greatly admired by critics and collectors alike. The eloquent use of colours, symbols and designs signified his enchantment with conflictual existence.
With more and more people increasingly investing in art, he feels that the art market is on a new high. Contemporary art being technology-based in some ways, an artist can innovate widely with his work. Also, art travels from person to person, and in this way, his work has become quite popular.
"The market has its own pace", says Bothsa. His work is gradually gaining recognition, with sculptures from his Enigma series being auctioned off at Sotheby’s in New York and Christie’s in London under the Contemporary South Asian Art category in 2007. He commissions his art out of the Saatchi Gallery or the London Contemporary Art Gallery online. His work has been exhibited at Art Expo India 2008 in Mumbai. He’s also exhibited in Chennai, New Delhi and Calcutta, to name a few places, and has sold nearly 100 sculptures out of his Second Skin series.
Having observed his art at the Harvest Group show by Arushi Arts in New Delhi in 2007, Uma Nair, art critic, reflects that Bothsa’s work is lavishly fluent in the complex language of contemporary art and the best of his works speak distinctive dialects. “Bothsa has successfully not only blended colour with sculpture, but he has also contested the three-dimensional form with two dimensional art”, says Suneet Chopra, senior art critic and curator. “He has been able to create virtual reality with his form of sculpture that is representative of traditional South India sculpture; he is one of those rare sculptors in the country who has been able to introduce colour as a narrative”, he continues.
Bothsa’s sculptures are essentially feminine in character. He moulds sculptures of different shapes and sizes without a particular idea in mind – he simply creates art. Several sculptures, for this reason, are uniquely shaped and sometimes peculiar too. In Second Skin he has sculpted the female body in varying forms, and painted it in beautiful colours. He has also used gold plating in these sculptures to highlight the element of ‘nature’ in his work – for example, he’s plated one half of a face in gold and the other half is painted in vibrant hues. He has painted a lot of watches, for example, that reflect his fascination with time. The brilliant, almost pervasive use of colours in his work is dramatic, rather, cinematic. He likes to dramatise, he maintains. He enjoys the drama.
His art is striking, one that immediately captures your imagination for the sheer kaleidoscopic sculptures that he creates. One such sculpture that particularly catches the eye is a six feet 5 inches tall sculpture, of a girl riding a buffalo. Simply named as sculpture 16A (names are left to individual fantasy), it’s priced at a whopping Rs 12 lakh. Another beautiful sculpture, of a standing woman with a bird in her hand, is priced at Rs 8 lakh. The bird is plated with real gold. His other sculptures range between Rs 2.5 lakh and Rs 10 lakh.
Bothsa’s work is lush and evocative, with motifs ranging from sports gear to advertisements, skyscrapers to birds. Subject to various kinds of interpretation, his work could be understood as critiquing industrial and technological evolution on one hand and as mirroring the synthesis of man and nature on the other hand. Either way, he’s riding high on newfound recognition. He’s aiming to make it big in the global art circuit in time, though at his own pace.
Having exhibited in Calcutta in September, this quiet, unassuming sculptor is currently working on a 16 feet long car, a single piece of sculpture, composed of clusters of smaller sculptures. The base will be metal to get the shape of a car right. Taking a break from exhibitions and art shows, it’s this project that he’s excited about at the moment. With all his sculptures being the visual delight that they are, this new project may just be worth a million.
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