Ranjani Shettar

Opening National Gallery of Victoria’s new contemporary exhibition space.

Filtering Indian craft traditions through her own novel sensibility, Ranjani Shettar transforms natural phenomena into magical forms.

The sculptures featured in Ranjani Shettar: Dewdrops and Sunshine reveal Shettar’s dextrous ability to work with a range of materials; her choice of media a disparate roster of the organic and human-made, including tamarind kernel paste, muslin, lacquer, wood, automotive paint, fishing line, beeswax, dyed thread, latex rubber and steel.

Dating from 2003 to the present, these explore a wide spectrum of natural phenomena: the kinetic response of plants in the presence of sunlight and to sudden movement; the human sneeze as a reflex to bright light; the interaction of water and sunlight; and the fluorescence of fireflies.

Shettar’s work is represented in the collections of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and Museum of Modern Art, New York. The artist has an extensive international record, having also exhibited at the Modern Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas; Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Hermes Foundation, Singapore; and Talwar Gallery, New York/New Delhi. She has further been featured in international surveys such as the 2006 Sydney Biennale and 2008 Carnegie International. Born in 1977, Shettar lives and works in Bangalore, India.