TOI: Valay Shende paints dark side of the India progress story

Neelam Raaj | April 16, 2011

Valay Shende's deeply political art smoulders with the still-warm ashes of farmers who have committed suicide.

Shende's dabbawalas, who are made of clock dials to denote their punctuality, and his table sculpture are displayed at a Helsinki museum.

He's often been compared to Subodh Gupta. And like the bartan boy from Bihar, sculptor Valay Shende uses everyday Indian motifs such as tiffins, scooters, cars and cattle. But the similarity between the two men of steel ends there.

The 31-year-old Shende is quite the angry, young artist. One who burrows into the interiors of Vidarbha in Maharashtra to meet the families of debt-ridden farmers and comes back to make an eight-seater, silver-plated dining table to mock the rich. The poignancy lies in the salt-and-pepper shakers which contain the ashes of Narsinglu Rukmawar, a farmer who committed suicide. The table is currently on display at the Helsinki art museum as part of the show Concurrent India along with an untitled work depicting the ever-punctual Mumbai dabbawala made of clock dials, and the traditional tiffin boxes replaced by "hungry stomachs".

More: http://www.timescrest.com/culture/valay-shende-paints-dark-side-of-the-india-progress-story-5219