Artist Vipul Rathod showcases thought-provoking wonder cabinets

One half of a “deconstructed” pyramid form appears suspended in a frame. Sunaina Anand, director, Art Alive, says when the contemporary art gallery showed Rathod’s work at India Art Fair a couple of years ago, it instantly made a mark. As Anushree Mukherjee, curatorial associate, Art Alive Gallery, writes in the artist’s exhibition catalogue: “These artefacts that are minuscule in proportion are not mere literal representations of everyday objects but are metaphorical representations of the artist’s thoughts and responses to his surroundings… His work embodies memory, desire, and the exploration of the unknown while acknowledging existence in current times.” Rathod is inspired by the sculptural works of the renowned British-Indian artist Anish Kapoor. Reminiscent of wunderkammers or cabinets that were encyclopedic collections of a wide variety of objects and artefacts in Europe during the Renaissance, and modelled as remnants of journeys capturing rare and eclectic experiences, Rathod’s “cabinets” question the forms of our past and present, insisting that they have a futuristic root as well. “My work is as much yours as it’s mine—the memory that a form evokes in me is different from what it would remind you of,” says Rathod.