What if a piece of art could react to your touch? In his new exhibition, artist Jayesh Sachdeva invites you to interact with his work—and feel what it has to say
Jayesh Sachdeva’s exhibition has focused on the transformation of energy. Pic/Kirti Surve Parade
A woman stops in front of a kaleidoscopic cow painted on a diptych and the manager of the art gallery urges her, “Please, go on, touch the art.”
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She touches the cow’s shoulder, and it speaks to her: “If you can hear this, please go say hi to Jayesh.”
Jayesh Sachdeva, an award-winning artist, is breaking one of the biggest barriers of the art world with his new exhibition, Oorja, that is on at Tao Art Gallery in Worli till November 2.
Jayesh Sachdev at his art exhibition, Oorja, at Tao Art Gallery in Worli. Pic/Kirti Surve Parade
“Typically, not touching the art is considered basic etiquette when you to go an art space. But there is an innate curiosity in everyone to touch the artwork. Where does this stem from? It springs from a desire to interact with the art, rather than just experience it visually. By touching the art, the viewer only wishes to understand it better. If I can smell art, if I can hear it, if it moves, then there are layers and depth to the experience,” says Sachdeva, explaining the concept behind one of his pieces, titled Gauhu (cow in Sanskrit).
“It’s a 10-foot diptych with a dynamic depiction of a cow in motion. Viewers can touch the black portions of the painting and the cow talks to them. There are 12 different conversations you can have with the cow by touching 12 points on the artwork. I haven’t pinpointed where these spots are, I’d like people to truly explore the piece and roam their hands over it and experience each new sound as a surprise,” he says.
The black portions of the artwork were painted with graphite paint, which conducts electrical stimuli and sends a signal to the wires hidden behind the painting which then prompt the sounds coded into the artwork. The graphite paint and coding was developed in collaboration with new media artist Vaishavi Shevde.
For Sachdeva, there’s as much joy in the experience for him as there is for the viewers. “I enjoy seeing how the audience reacts to my work. It’s much harder to gauge their response when they merely view the art. But when I see them touch the art and be surprised by it, it’s a more enjoyable for both, the audience and me.”
Speaking about the theme of the exhibition, Oorja, or energy, he says, “All of us are constantly evolving. Our energies change, how we respond to something today is different from how we’d have reacted, say, five years ago. That is the crux of my concept, which is a visual narrative of transformation. So you’ll see a lot of movement in the art. Take the diptych that greets one right upon entering the gallery—Kali and Dawon. As the title indicates, the painting depicts Kali and her tiger, Dawon, as they violently break through a whirlpool. It’s Kali as pop art.
“We always think of Kali as a form of energy. She is always depicted slaying a demon. In a new-age interpretation of Kali, I imagine what it would be like if she were there today, as one of us. What if she was a superhero, and what if the modern-day demons are within us and Kali is here to slay them? The water in the artwork is a symbol of life and destruction, as well as transmutation of energy. This is one of my stronger pieces that I am fond of,” says Sachdeva.
There are pieces in which he also reimagines, such as Ganesha as a Marvel-style superhero, riding a frothy wave with his muscles tensed in fighting stance, possibly in anticipation of a showdown with evil.
Apart from paintings, there is also an eight-foot-tall, 400-kg glass fibre sculpture of the elephant god, the kind of larger-than-life art that Sachdeva—who holds the Limca Record for India’s largest concept artwork—is well-known for. In contrast, there’s a much smaller three-foot sculpture of Ganesha further in. Both sculptures are contemporary interpretations of the Hindu god, composed entirely of spheres, with no harsh edges. “These spheres represent the fluidity of thought,” says Sachdeva. Now that’s an apt representation of the god of wisdom.
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