Inward bound
- Padma Jayaraj
e-mail: padmajayaraj@gmail.com
Photos courtesy the artist

March 8, 2016

Bushan Pathare names his exhibition simply 'Sculptures' (16th to 22nd Feb 2016, Jahangir Art Gallery, Mumbai). The display dwells on the theme of an inward journey through the realm of human-scape.
 
We are trapped in a strange land: human anatomy, skeletal human forms, acrobatic poses, a conglomeration of dance, yoga and abstract art. Wait, watch, the pieces of the jigsaw fall in place revealing the inner meanings of the apparent. There is a method in the madness. The confusion clarifies itself as you take in the underlying brilliant choreography. Bereft of flesh and its charms you encounter the internal force in spiritual dimensions, in geometrical diagrams the source and power of his mystique art.
Made of copper and bronze they look like acrobatic figures to an untrained eye. As you look on, you feel your breathing slowing down to inhale its lyrical quality. The dancing forms radiate the rhythm of motion. The gymnasts are poised in asanas. The divers carrying the oxygen tank on their backs navigate a course voyaging to the ocean floor. They are miniature figures whose fluid lines produce a poetics of rhythm.
 
The anatomy of the brain is perhaps its intriguing core. In shining copper it is the repository of a special energy, the energy of life force that courses through our veins carrying impulses from the yet unknown. The brain in grey color, is symbol of grey matter that the humans consider their hallmark.







But away from the arrogant intellect, we are led to a different realm to hear a different music.  The figures cast in copper and bronze speak of the steely power and glory of inner dynamics in yogic poses. Poised in a meditative pose they take you to the home of sages that was the storehouse of wisdom. Near them, Nature is poised in abstract poetry wrought in marble. It seems like an icon in abstract art, more lyrical than the abstract Ganesa in black. You take your own time, ponder over the abstract that the artist calls the empty space where soul is in repose. Beyond is the burnished bronze statue of the Buddha, the epitome of wisdom for the Indian mind.

There is a photograph with a glowing lamp that graces the exhibition hall.
 
"Is this the picture of your Master?" I asked.

"He is my father...I inherited my talent from him." He smiled in affection casting a lingering look on the photograph. I wondered what tender memories flash across his mind. The artist Bhushan Sukhadev Pathare is a product of J.J. School of Art, Mumbai, and specialized in sculpture and modeling. He works as a freelance artist.

Padma Jayaraj is a freelance writer on the arts. She is a regular contributor to www.narthaki.com