Ōtah Prōtah: Bhuvanesh Gowda

The show featured a set of Bhuvanesh's recent sculptures made of discarded (and o<en decaying) pieces of wood salvaged from dismantled houses and elsewhere. Breathing new life into seemingly redundant objects, Bhuvanesh conceptually aBempts to reconnect the past with the present. In his skilled hands, old and worn out maBer aBain the affluence of a<erlife. In the course of this transformaEon, new meanings and suggesEons emerge; o<en carrying cultural associaEons with the past, and so<ly hinEng at the shape of things to come. With wood as his primary material, Bhuvanesh’s approach to creaEng forms conEnues to be that of a proficient carpenter – strict, scrupulous, precise, dexterous and diligent. He gleans from ‘Vishwakarma’, the master carpenter and divine architect-engineer of the gods, adopEng a free-flowing and process- oriented engagement with found objects and material. Disentangled from pressures associated with predetermined outcome, Bhuvanesh weaves his magic with clear doses of spontaneity, dynamism, and playfulness.

The Etle of the show (Ōtah Prōtah; adj; sewn lengthwise and crosswise) is derived from an ancient verse, and refers to all- pervasive, universal paBerns. Bhuvanesh adopts the spirit of the verse while creaEng the works seen in this exhibiEon. Resultantly, they stand out not as improvised and isolated objects but as a network of rhythms, ideas and proposiEons. Individually, the carefully cra<ed and imagined sculptural pieces exude self-contained power, grace and intensity. Seen together, they acquire the enigmaEc form of a mysterious web; where everything is intrinsically connected with everything else – organically, aestheEcally, and metaphorically. Bhuvanesh’s art is one of criEcal thinking as it is of knowing the cra< inEmately. His ideas are inspired by various sources – as divergent as the Hindu mythology, human psychology, atomic physics, and magical realism. For him, the process of chiseling on wood is both a pleasurable and catharEc experience. Taking a cue from the scienEfic principle that ‘everything is energy’,
Bhuvanesh seeks to set his sculptures against different frequencies in order to perceive and understand the many facets of reality.
Giridhir Khasnis 2016