Artists find inspiration in S H Raza to turn scrap into sculptures

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Mandla (MP), Jul 22 (PTI) All creation begins from a dot, a 'bindu", a philosophy that is reflected in artist S H Raza's most famous artworks and has now become an inspiration for sculptor Narendra Kumar Dewangan who works with scrap metal to create sculptures.
'When you put a tack to connect two metal parts it is a point only that starts the creation of something new. So in a way, all our works are inspired by Raza," Dewangan told PTI as he welded another piece of metal to his work, titled 'Environment Balancer".
The metallic sculpture, made with scrap of cars, bikes, and construction material, is one of the four being made here as part of Raza Smriti, a five-day multidisciplinary art camp organised by the Raza Foundation.
Raza, who died on July 23, 2016, was born in Mandla district of Madhya Pradesh in 1922. After spending his initial years in Mandla, he moved to different parts of the state with his father, a deputy forest ranger.
Dewangan, a sculptor from Chhattisgarh, has created a city of metal that has at its centre a large tree to physically balance the tilted sculpture.
'I am showing a city that is both inside and outside the earth and there is a tree at the centre of it to balance it out. The tree is a symbol of how to balance the environment and at the same time how to find a way to coexist with nature," he said.
Another artist from Chhattisgarh, Jeetendra Sahu, has also looked to nature for inspiration. His vision has come to reality in the shape of MP's state bird Dudhraj, or Indian paradise flycatcher.
With the petrol tank of a bike as the bird's body and metal sheets for its long tail, the sculpture is a tribute to the state that is known for its natural beauty and the many forest reserves.
'I like to do realistic works more. I saw Dudhraj here and found it to be too attractive, so I felt that with this I can represent the whole state," Sahu said.
To match the bird's form, Sahu has used rebars, chain sprockets, paddings, chains, and different types of gears.
Speaking about the sculptors finding their expression through scrap material, Ashok Vajpeyi, poet and managing trustee of the Raza Foundation, said the objective of the camp is to introduce local artists to new ways of creating art.
'They have all collected these pieces which are picked up from shops here and they have been given the freedom to imagine what they would like to do so there are different kinds of things all of them are doing," Vajpeyi said.
'And what is interesting is in a manner of speaking the function of art is gathering up what is also broken down. The things here are broken down and not useful in the conventional sense but they can still be used in creating art, so there is this excitement of imagination getting embodied in material which never had been used for that purpose and was not intended to be used for that purpose," he added.
Amit Kumar Sinha, a sculptor from Jabalpur, has followed the inspiration of J Swaminathan and Raza in his work, combining elements of both the stalwarts – bindu from Raza, bird and mountain from Swaminathan.
'Swaminathan worked a lot with Gond artists to promote their art. And even though Raza spent very little time here, as he was settled in France, his journey of art in India is internationally renowned," he said.
He added that since every art starts from a dot, the five circles in his work represent five dots.
The five-day event, which started on July 19, will come to an end on Wednesday. The completed sculptures will be placed at the Raza Art Gallery in Mandla. PTI MAH BK BK
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First Published:
July 22, 2025, 18:30 IST
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