Proving his mettle in bronze

CHENNAI: For most of us, sculpted figurines are but showpieces to adorn the living room. But to renowned sculptor KS Radhakrishnan, they are his canvas, his field of work, his inspiration- which he says is like defining the vastness of the sky. The Delhi-based sculptor, who’s currently displaying his show ‘Ascending Figures’ at Focus Art Gallery, speaks to City Express.“Speaking like my inspiration is like reading out my resume,” Radhakrishnan begins, recounting what is obviously an oft-repeated story. “I began sculpting 40 years ago. One of the characters I always work with is Musui,” he says. When prodded more, he says “It’s very difficult to describe what I do. It’s like explaining the vastness of the sky. If you have noticed, most of my works have multiple figures. The subjects appear as if they are travelling from one place to another, as if they are on-the-go all the time. It’s almost like they are waiting to jump into a different territory. So, they are ‘Ascending Figures’. When put together, they appear like fireflies, and not human figures,” Radhakrishnan explains.His love for muse Musui and Maiya deserve special mention. These look-alike fictional characters separated only by gender, are the sculptor’s most famous works and best-known muses. “ They are the two characters I always work with. And I usually don’t tend to make drastic changes in my sculpting style. So everybody is likely to see a reflection of Musui or Maiya in my current show. These two characters aren’t part of Ascending Spaces but the shapes of the sculptures here are similar,” he explains.Getting into the technical details of sculpture-making, he says, Radhakrishnan works with only one medium — bronze. The kind of sculptures he creates cannot be done with any other medium other than bronze, he adds. Bronze allows him to create gravity-defying figures (for example–the open-air sculptures) and helps him add a certain amount of subtleness to the sculpture. His longest work- the 20-metre long Liminal Space is, sadly, not part of his display in Chennai. “Liminal spaces slated for a display at the Indian Habitat Centre, New Delhi, from March 3,” he says. This pet project took two years to make. Speaking of Chennai’s ace sculptor S Nandagopal, Radhakrishnan says he was happy to meet the artiste at the inauguration of Ascending Spaces. “Our works are incomparable because our methodologies aren’t similar though we deal with metal sculptures. I use the lost-wax method, while he uses the direct metal welding method,” Radhakrishnan reveals.Ascending Spaces is on display till March 5.