New Delhi: A couple mid-kiss with three birds suspended in motion above them, bronze fish swimming across a blue canvas, antelopes perched on a tree. A bronze and multimedia exhibition by sculptor KR Nariman rediscovers the eternal connection between humans and nature through the elements of air, water, land, and fire.
“Nature is my inspiration, and through my art I talked about that,” said Nariman, whose solo exhibition, ‘Elemental’, is on until 6 December at Delhi’s Bikaner House.
A 30-something Delhi-based artist who trained under famous sculptor KS Radhakrishnan for three years and has an MFA from London’s University of the Arts, Nariman is known for using themes of wildlife, nature, and human connection, often with a strong undercurrent of idealism. One of her pieces, ‘Freedom’, celebrates ‘We, the People’ at the Constitution Museum, which opened last year. She has exhibited her work at the Paris Art Fair, the Milan Art Fair, and the Royal Society of British Artists.
“Reflective of her personal philosophy, Nariman’s bronze sculptures evoke the elements through form and movement building a contemplative landscape where flora, birds, animals and humans merge in aspirational equilibrium,” reads a description note at the exhibition.
In Elemental, Nariman has explored a new melding of mediums by placing small bronze sculptures on canvas with acrylic paint.
“This is something totally new… I have not really seen it in too many other places,” she said. “I have integrated my message from the bronze sculpting and just put it on a canvas.”
Bronze is her primary material, but she ensures that she only works with recycled materials: “At every stage of my creative process, I strive to work with sustainable practices.”
Conservation and co-existence are running themes, whether it is intricate sculptures of rhinos or kinetic bronze figures with birds sitting on their outstretched arms.
Much of her inspiration comes from travelling. Whenever she sees an animal during a wildlife safari, she photographs it and, after research, produces it through art.
In one of the sculptures, she has exaggerated the talon of a bird and placed another bird on it. “A small part of our body does so much for us,” she said.
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Small human figures
Most of the sculptures on display have small human forms worked into them. And Nariman has deliberately kept them that size.
“My entire narrative around it is, please live with nature. And don’t think that we are above them. We are a small speck on planet earth,” she said.
The exhibition encompasses a range of pieces, from small canvases to large installations, all made during the last three years. In one of the galleries, Nariman shows migratory birds flocking and flying together.
“It’s a whole installation process to show if we live together peacefully, we will move upward and onwards,” she said.
Nariman imagines air as both metaphor and necessity. Delicate birds suspended between gravity and weightlessness evoke the vitality and vastness of the skies.
“It is not just a physical element but a symbol of freedom, imagination and the shared breath between humans and the more-than-human world,” reads one of the descriptions.
(Edited by Asavari Singh)