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Based on Gorakhnath’s “Shunya Gadh Shahar”, Shoonya Ghar has been Shetty’s muse since his art school (Sir JJ School of Art) days. “I was introduced to poetry as a bhajan by Pandit Kumar Gandharva. In fact, I became interested in poetry because of Kumar Gandharva, especially his nirguni bhajans. “Shunya Gadh Shahar” remained with me for a long time. Poetry has been a part of my life by way of pure poetry, or songs. My father was a yakshagana (a dance theatre form from Karnataka) artist, and an environment full of music and songs introduced me to a lot of poetry. It (poetry) influenced my art, and how I learned to make art,” says Shetty. It was only earlier in this decade that the poem made its way into his art. “I wondered if I can mediate the two, poetry and art. Finally it led to this piece of work,” he adds.
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While poetry is a visible influence on Shetty, there is another practice which has been a recurring motif in his works, architecture. “The poem has many architectural elements to it — Gadh, Shahar, Basti…Jal bich kamal, kamal bich kaliyan, bhanwara baas na leta hai, is nagari ke das darwaze… I try to respond to the poem by building. Architecture has a huge role in it,” says Shetty, who has used it earlier as well as for his upcoming works. There is the most recent one, another film called Song and Stories, which weaves architecture with a story he once heard a long time ago. There is also the upcoming Cave Inside, which features domestic items, that are quotidian in many ways. The show will open on November 14 at Gallerie Krinzinger, in Vienna, Austria. “I think I got interested in architecture because I build things, I am a sculptor. There’s a thing of attributing permanence. Yet there is also my interest in storytelling and my love for the impermanent oral transmission of knowledge. Maybe that’s why I make these films. It is interesting to see the evolution of information through people’s telling and retelling, the oral vs museumisation of things,” says the artist who is a perfect ambassador for his work, carrying duality within. The screening of Shoonya Ghar will be followed by an interactive session with the artist.