Conversations with Oneself

Dhruva Mistry’s colourful figures joyfully introspect, claims Chintan Girish Modi.

- Chintan Girish Modi

Dhruva Mistry has earned a respectable place in the history of Indian sculpture. His intimate work – in bronze and stainless steel among other metals – and his public structures – often in sandstone – are marked by a desire to explore the relationship between substance and space, object and meaning.

New Work: 1999-2019 at Akara Art Gallery in Mumbai from the 5th to the 31st of December, had Mistry’s works from over the last two decades. The pieces were striking and embodied Mistry’s signature precision – metal rods and plates were cut and fitted using detailed diagrams. The exhibits and their shadows seemed to probe three-dimensionality as a condition, thanks to the inspired display.

I felt particularly drawn to a work titled Reading Recline (Chiaroscuro), which depicts a human figure immersed in the restorative act of reading. The legs are placed in a manner that could be described as languorous while the gaze of the figure seems focused on the text. This work is one of a series of sculptures from the show – Recline, Recline in Lemon Yellow, Seated in Crimson, Hear You Are, Reclining Woman and