Artist Vipul Rathod showcases thought-provoking wonder cabinets

One half of a “deconstructed” pyramid form appears suspended in a frame. It is juxtaposed with an Mughal-style architectural motif. In a different grid, there’s another yantra-inspired form, even as the viewer’s eye travels to, in the same artwork, another pattern reminiscent of the architectural floor plan of a temple’s sanctum sanctorum. From jaali motifs evoking the architectural strength of a bygone era to nature-inspired forms, it’s impossible not to be awed by Vipul Rathod’s 40x 57.5-inch. mixed media work, Cabinet of Curiosities 5, which features a compendium of articles, all of them organised in grids, forming a structure that resembles a cabinet encasing miniaturised papier-mâché objects. 

Showing at Delhi’s Art Alive Gallery, Rathod’s art is immediately engaging, refreshing and well thought-out. The 38-year-old artist, whose father is a carpenter, finds inspiration in simple every day objects, evoking memory in some form or the other. What look like terracotta or burnt clay objects at first glance are actually papier-mâché items, moulded meticulously by a “secret” binding solution that gives these objects their durability. The resemblance to terracotta is achieved by the artist mixing both poster and acrylic colours. “It gives the work that matte finish,” says Rathod, who completed his art studies at MS University in Vadodara. 

Cabinet of Curiosities is Rathod’s first solo exhibition. Sunaina Anand, director, Art Alive, says when the contemporary art gallery showed Rathod’s work at India Art Fair a couple of years ago, it instantly made a mark. “It’s not often that viewers are drawn so soon and so intensely, especially towards the works of the younger generation of artists,” she says. The competition is intense, and it’s usually years into their practice that artists emerge with their signature styles. 

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Rathod, a prolific painter, abandoned the canvas around three years ago to become an amalgamation of a painter, sculptor and scientist, dabbling in creating special binding adhesives made with chemical solutions. “Though my paintings were selling well, I was fatigued and exhausted as an artist. There was stagnation and, for a little over a year, I left art completely,” says Rathod. He would take nature walks—something that he likes to do even now when he’s hit a creative block—sit quietly, and “soak in periods of silences” in some of the quieter areas of his hometown, Ahmedabad. What followed was his mind’s eye suddenly looking at forms— leaves; drops of water (a form that particularly intrigues him); mushrooms growing in the ground; blades of grass. 

Rathod was not only studying forms, he was “deconstructing and subsequently reconstructing them”. Sketching all of these “inspirations” in his notebook, Rathod decided to take up sculpture in a major way two years ago. The journey of creating Cabinet of Curiosities, at first fraught with frustration, allowed Rathod to find his voice. As Anushree Mukherjee, curatorial associate, Art Alive Gallery, writes in the artist’s exhibition catalogue: “These artefacts that are minuscule in proportion are not mere literal representations of everyday objects but are metaphorical representations of the artist’s thoughts and responses to his surroundings… His work embodies memory, desire, and the exploration of the unknown while acknowledging existence in current times.”

Rathod is inspired by the sculptural works of the renowned British-Indian artist Anish Kapoor. “We need to look at the complexity behind the simplest of objects and forms,” says Rathod, explaining that if we observe closely, forms are all around us, waiting to be identified. In his studio in Ahmedabad, there are already over 10,000 new objects and forms that Rathod has sculpted and left to dry. Reminiscent of wunderkammers or cabinets that were encyclopedic collections of a wide variety of objects and artefacts in Europe during the Renaissance, and modelled as remnants of journeys capturing rare and eclectic experiences, Rathod’s “cabinets” question the forms of our past and present, insisting that they have a futuristic root as well. 

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Interestingly, many of the boxes or grids within several artworks have been left empty by the artist. These empty grids, Anand explains, provide breathing space for the viewer to pause and meditate on the work fully. “My work is as much yours as it’s mine—the memory that a form evokes in me is different from what it would remind you of,” says Rathod. It’s true. The play with grids, structure, form, and colour allows the viewer to take in the entire composition, both in fragments and as a whole, the eye darting in all directions to soak in the enigma of the various patterns and forms that inform Rathod’s practice. “It’s a symphony which eventually evokes many memories,” explains Anand, adding that everyone can relate to the work because they are reminders of our own life experiences. 

With his visual language strongly established through sculptural forms assembled within these constructed cabinets, Rathod’s work becomes a point for introspection and an inner dialogue for the viewers. In observing these cabinets, viewers are enriching their own memories of the past while also immersing themselves in a study of the present and the future. 

At Art Alive Gallery, New Delhi, till 7 September. 

Abhilasha Ojha is a Delhi-based art and culture writer