Valsan Kolleri (b.1953)
|
Valsan Koorma Kolleri came to Madras to study in 1971 at a time when the
sculptor Dhanpal headed the College of Arts and Crafts; and a Artists'
Village, under the guidance of K.C.S. Panicker offered several possibilities
for practicing artists to continue working without the anxiety of having to
find other means of physical sustenance. Working initially with the
geometrical abstraction which originated from the study of the human body in
its structural configuration and in movement, Kolleri would cast plaster and
concrete in single and multiple modules, later assembling them into totemic
formats which created a startling dialogue between the primitive and the
urban. Subsequently, in the late 80's and 90's, he cast two significant
bodies of work in bronze, with fragments of organic and geometrical forms,
braising the pieces together in the manner of sculptural collage, and in the
process combining brass pots, machine parts and other finds gathered during
forages among the assorted scrap in the junkshops situated in the older
quarters of Madras. From the late 90's he moved quite naturally into the
area of environment and architecture, via projects conceived by local
municipalities or private organizations which promoted the idea of
incorporating sculpture into recreational spaces. In Subhash Bose Park in
Kochi, for example, he used the stucco technique to build a central skeletal
pyramid surrounded by smaller units, spaces in which visitors to the park
could recline or dream. The range of materials which he now uses has widened
to include wood, leather, bones, hair, nests and hives, things which have
been outgrown or discarded, having aged or lost their value in the quest for
novelty. Turning loss to advantage, he creates a theatre where these things
are reinstated, pending further use; by virtue of their relationship to
their surroundings, they encompass a space which far exceeds their immediate
limits. |