A universe of meaning

In a 2019 work titled Pieces Earth Left Behind, Sudarshan Shetty displayed 99 pieces of wooden sculptures, each modeled on an object that he found in Mumbai’s Chor Bazaar, a place where old, disused items find a new lease of life.

Pots, pans, shoes, rolled-up bedding, a metallic box, a gunny sack: these are the meagre possessions that speak to us of a family’s life. It is easy to assume that the family in question is poor, and that these possessions have been abandoned in haste, but that’s not all that artist Sudarshan Shetty would want you to think about.

Standing 7 feet tall, this new work is carved out of re-used wood that has been collected from various dismantled structures in and around Mumbai.(Sudharshan Shetty)