Rajender Tiku returns to the capital with dramatic sculptures November 11, 2008

New Delhi: Gallery Espace presents “Recent works by Rajender Tiku”; a solo exhibition of twenty five sculptures in a range of mediums such as gold-gilded wood, bronze, stone and marble accompanied with works on paper and papyrus by Kashmir-based veteran artist Rajender Tiku from November 12, 2008 to December 6, 2008 at Gallery Espace, Level 0-1, 16, Community Centre, New Friends Colony.

Says Renu Modi, Director, Gallery Espace, “Tiku’s works are metaphoric. By using a range of mediums, his works bear associations with architectural elements and the clever use of cracks and breaks in the block of stone creates an aura of a relic from the past. What strongly underscore his works are optimism, renewal and forgiveness with suggestions of survival under the most trying circumstances; an undying spirit that is waiting to germinate and take root.”

Born in Wadwan, Kashmir in 1953, Rajender Tiku graduated from Kashmir University with science and then law. Simultaneously, he studied sculpture from the Institute of Music and Fine Arts, Srinagar and completed the course in 1978. Recipient of the Pollock-Krasner Grant (2005), Tiku is inspired by his surroundings especially the sacred. He says, “Being in Kashmir for the last fifteen years, I have witnessed great political problems but even during that violence, good still prevailed. Through my sculptures, I try to portray the good side that is prevalent in every human being.”

Further he adds, “My prime concern is to create an aura around my sculpture. That is why to make my visuals very strong, I use wood, gold, colours and lights to make it more dramatic.” Working for the last five years towards the current solo exhibition, Tiku has consciously worked towards transforming the ordinary into extraordinary, abstract into artworks and tragedy into resilience and beauty.

Exploring newer modes and materials to create images and forms of immense interest and significance, Tiku’s work are about colour and script. The works titled The Site - N bear the Sharda script - an almost defunct Kashmiri script that is now reserved nearly exclusively for Pandit ritualistic purposes. Its illegibility along with the use of colour, as in the Red Sprout or the Green Lantern, creates universality in the visual language that characterizes Tiku’s work and simultaneously evokes a sense of history.

Fascinated by how roadside objects are turned into shrines with mere belief, he forms abstract shapes out of bronze, gilding it with gold or by reversing the scale and carving out large rosary beads out of Devar stone (a stone mostly reserved for carving out deities), and titles them as Shrine or Stupa.

The work titled Sprout, a gold-gilded wood sculpture is based on Kashmiri poet Shama Kaul’s poem “Humne boyi hai apni asthiyon ki paniri – hum ugenge” which means we have sown the seedlings of our remains – we shall sprout again. Works like Hearth Back Home, My House in the Snow, or Snow Drops, are simple and designed in such a way that it not only generates silence but announces its presence as well.

A distinguished artist, Rajender Kumar Tiku became the founder-secretary of S. P. College Artists' Association. Nominated as a juror in Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi (1998), he was conferred with the distinction of eminent artist by the Lalit Kala Akademi (1999). An extensive number of solo and group participations to his credit, Tiku has participated in numerous camps and symposia across the globe. Some of the prestigious awards he has received are - 8th Triennale India (International) Award for Sculpture (1994); National Award for Sculpture (1993); Jammu & Kashmir State Award for Sculpture (1979); Jammu & Kashmir State Award for Sculpture (1978).

In this show, one can admire the ethereal beauty of sculpture which is related to the medium as the body is related to soul (atma). In the absence of the one, the other loses its relevance. The exhibition introduces us to tradition and modernity in perfect harmony.