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Lot 23

 

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Nataraj Sharma’s art often delves into the complex relationship between humans and machines in today’s industrialised world, where their interaction is both inevitable and inescapable. His works, visually striking and often grand in scale, evoke the unpredictable confluence of nature, civilization, and industrialization. Urbanscapes like the present lot distil these forces to their essentials, uncovering deeper, more intricate dynamics. Sharma’s... Nataraj Sharma’s art often delves into the complex relationship between humans and machines in today’s industrialised world, where their interaction is both inevitable and inescapable. His works, visually striking and often grand in scale, evoke the unpredictable confluence of nature, civilization, and industrialization. Urbanscapes like the present lot distil these forces to their essentials, uncovering deeper, more intricate dynamics. Sharma’s art reflects a keen awareness of the rapidly changing world while questioning the socio-economic and political implications of this relentless march toward ‘progress’.

Sharma’s fascination with machines began when he moved to Baroda, Gujarat, in 1994 to teach art, amidst a city undergoing rapid construction and transformation. He was drawn to the “transgressed and transforming landscape” and the machinery driving it. As he once remarked, “Objects have a still life, a permanence and a consistency that stands in contrast to the fickleness of human exchange... They say: ‘Reveal us and we will reveal you.’” (Grant Watson, “Simulated Realities and Virtual Experience”, Voices of Change: 20 Indian Artists, Mumbai: Marg Publications, 2010, p. 113)

In Sharma’s work, machines appear as dreamlike presences amidst the structured chaos of industrial decay. This fluid interplay between formless space and rigid structures is a recurring theme in his art. “The representation of the human form trapped within structures larger and more powerful than itself takes on a sense of the monumental in Sharma’s many paintings of machinery and factories, a theme which functions as a central trope in his practice. Sometimes the artist presents these machines as contradictory objects which on the one hand adhere to the logic of orderliness and productivity and on the other to the whimsy and playfulness of artistic fancy.” (Watson, p. 102)

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