Meet the angry young man

Scupltor Arun Pandit's upcoming exhibition has a story to tell. Dig deeper and find out if you are in it

Arun Pandit's credentials as an artist are authenticated by the fact that when you want to talk to him about his work, chances are you'll catch him not in a swank art gallery sipping his aperitif but rather at a sabzi mandi bargaining over aubergines and tomatoes.



On his way back home perhaps he'll engross himself into watching two middle aged women arguing in the neighbourhood while the wife back home impatiently waits in her kitchen for the bagful of vegetables. But that is what makes Arun the sculptor he is -- a storyteller whose narrative is about the vertical development of our country. He lurks in metro cities among vulnerable women, corrupt politicians, that lone beggar at the crossing and pounds at you with a mirror showing you -- your Delhi, your Patna or any other city for that matter.

Human Angst, An Elegy, an upcoming solo exhibition by the sculptor is a melancholic poem about day to day life of a city merged with the childhood memories of a place where he was born, Patna. Is there a physical form of the abuses to women hurl at each other?

Arun uses moulds to write down those offensive words on and when you tear way the moulds what do you get- the face of innocence. "When I was a child I saw some one hurled profanities at her. She kept weeping that she was innocent," says Arun.

It is those memories which tumble out in his works. The multiple layers put on your face embedding the innocent one into a place somewhere deep. His story is about dams and walls lying under layers of a a film heroine or a politician canvassing for the elections.

The facial expressions, on Arun's works are delicate but also multiple. "It's like the blurred effect when you flip through a comic book quickly. It's about the face pace we have adopted in our lives," says Arun. Yes, it is about the speed at which a city moves and us trying to keep pace with it. About childhood reminiscences, innocence and that man from Patna who came to Delhi. Arun's works are your stories.u00a0

Human angest, an elegy
At: Visual Art Gallery, India Habitat Centre, Lodhi Road
From: October 29 to 31
Timings: 11am to 8pm

At: Hotel Fortune Park DJ Avenue, M G Road, Metro Pillar 129
From: November 1 to 5
Timings: 11am to 8pm