The Big Picture - Feature: Exhibition - Sheela Gowda: Therein & Besides at Rivington Place until March 12th

Published: 11 February, 2011

SHEELA Gowda, an artist based in Bangalore, India, creates compelling and beautifully arranged sculptures from everyday materials. 

In the past she has used cow dung, human hair and kum kum (a red dye used for body adornment). Her first solo exhibition in the UK is currently at Rivington Place in Shoreditch.

The artworks on show include a piece incorporating 10,000 small figures, which from a distance look like wooden chips; close up you see markings of eyes and mouths and how each one represents an individual person. Carved at great speed by craftsmen – in a way mass-produced – these were originally used as ritual objects representing people rather than gods and goddesses. Placing them among larger wooden elements, including door frames, adds to the contrast in scale.

“There is a scaling that happens,” says Sheela Gowda. “When you see the wooden figures inside the table you have a sense of the table becoming more like a piazza and the table legs become minarets or towers. 

“When you look at the windows and doors which are your scale, then you become small, but when you look at the cityscape with the figures, then you become big.” 

The artist also burnt incense in mesh frames to create a giant ash sculpture for the exhibition.

• Sheela Gowda: Therein & Besides runs until March 12 at Rivington Place, EC2. Tuesday-Friday 11am-6pm, Thursday 11am-9pm, Saturday 12-6pm 020 7749 1240 info@rivingtonplace.org www.rivingtonplace.org