Lilliput comes to art gallery at Fort

If you step into Fort’s Gallery BMB this fortnight, you might have to bend over, scrunch your eyes and peer closely in order to appreciate the art exhibits on display.

If you step into Fort’s Gallery BMB this fortnight, you might have to bend over, scrunch your eyes and peer closely in order to appreciate the art exhibits on display.

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The exhibition that opened at the gallery on Friday is called Miniscule Marvel, and each work in the collection is not more than 12x12 inches in size.

Commissioned by Delhi-based art foundation Contemplate, the paintings and sculptures are the work of 30 established artists from across the country, including the likes of Chintan Upadhyay, SH Raza, Sunil Gawde, Ravi Kumar Kashi and Remen Chopra.

“When you see a large piece of art, it can get intimidating and remains a museum piece — you cannot put it in your personal space,” said artist Aishwarya Pathy, who founded Contemplate with her mother and art connoisseur Rajshree Pathy.

“Miniatures, on the other hand, are not as overwhelming but still have the power to engage the viewer,” she added.

Many of the miniatures in the collection are scaled-down versions of original paintings or installations by the artists.

For Pathy, the thrill of commissioning the project was to challenge the artists with the task of impacting viewers

just as strongly with miniature exhibits as with large-sized art.

“The notion of de-scaling is both challenging and exciting,” said Delhi-based artist Remen Chopra, who sculpted a 10-inch steel-wire installation, Shadows of Time, which was originally 7-feet high.

The sculpture is a stick-figure representation of the artist herself, and through a series of photographs embedded into the figure, Chopra attempts to explore the character’s psychology and history.

“Big sculptures make bold statements, miniatures have a delicacy to their aura,” said Chopra.

(The exhibition, Miniscule Marvel, will be on display at Gallery BMB, Fort, from April 23 to May 12)