Rock stars: At LN Tallur’s art show, stones have a story to tell

The artist’s new works are a witty commentary on our expectations, fears and misguided sense of the importance of objects.

In one of the corners of Chemould Prescott Road sits a small work titled Intolerance. What look like stones of different sizes and shapes struggle to balance on top of each other.

Look closer. It’s a sculpture made of a single piece of Mahabalipuram stone and weighs 350 kgs. The piece highlights the hazards of the weight of ambition we pile on ourselves. “We know these are heavy stones, painful to carry,” says artist LN Tallur. “Yet, in our ambition for a better tomorrow, we pretend to be tolerant to this piled up pain. It’s actually an intolerance of the present.”

Tallur’s show, Smoke Out, extends his practice of using materials such as sandstone, graphite, marble, bronze, concrete and iron, to create messages of with wit and some sarcasm.

LN Tallur’s Intolerance is a stone metaphor for the burden and baggage we make ourselves carry.

In Callibrator 2017, he wraps half a bronze sculpture with silver chain mail.

“In the market, we have genuine bronzes – old, handmade and slightly rustic, and those produced by machines – in bulk and with a great finish,” he points out. “Most people tend to like the latter, but I don’t. Hence I cover it with mesh.”