Silent Viewer: Solo Show by Manoj Aggarwal, Curated by Georgina Maddox

Silent Viewer 

Artist Manoj Agarwal explores bronze sculptural expressions that are contemporary experienced laced with the aesthetics and history of India’s of stone and bronze sculpture.  

In a studio tucked away in East Delhi NCR suburb, Mayur Vihar, artist Manoj Aggarwal creates a body of voluminous sculptural forms that extoll the female physiognomy and the working-class urban male denizen. His full-bodied, exaggerated forms and lyrical postures convey the sleight of labour in day-to-day routines, in pieces like, Finding Own Space 2, where a man is captured lifting bricks and moving forward with his body thrust toward the viewer. In Finding Own Space 1 a young man appears to be lifting the entire city above his head with its high-rises in an all but heroic gesture. While in other work he celebrates moments of repose, in sculptures like Standing Beauty or Observer where a woman leans on a window frame to look out as a bird perch above her; he captures those lyrical moments associating them with feminine beauty and a state of artistic contemplation. 

Aggarwal also makes a subtle critique of the pressures of urban life in his sculpture Blind Race, where the man is racing toward the finish-line and his head has morphed into that of a horse, but the racing body lacks a sense of direction and it even appears to be in mid-collision with the door-frame through which it is rushing. Having grown up and locating his artistic practice in the city, Aggarwal’s critique of this direction-less rush is endemic to his lived reality. His artistic practice is underlined with a strong voice of the middle-class and brings forward his sense of support and empathy toward the challenges they face.  

Aggarwal also brings to his sculpture moments of sacred intervention and an acknowledgement to the divine forces of life; in works like Deity, we have a reference to Lord Buddha holding forth several of his hands in the Abhay Mudra, (a gesture that indicates both protection and blessing) while in the work Divine Favour he appears to tower over the human hands that reach out for blessing and intervention from below. 

In works like Deep Within and Insight, it is man and woman who look within to find that inner voice that will guide them through the complications of life. Taking a leap of faith, the work Blessing speaks of the miracle of birth, where divinity seems to reach through the womb itself to bring life into the world, the hand of the divine one appears in the womb and we are made preview to it through a circular void hollowed out in her stomach. 

The size of his sculptures varies from small, to medium as well as larger-than-life where he celebrates the human form in all its glory. As observed and rightly so, Agarwal's sculptures stand as majestic testaments to the fusion of artistic vision and craftsmanship, for he brings to his practice both the artistic approach of high modern art as well his fine knowledge of the craftsmanship of bronze sculpture, that bears out the historical practice of Indian proportions, with exaggerated hips and shoulders, especially of the feminine forms.   

Manoj also brings with him India’s rich history of full-bodied female sculptures, of chauri bearers, Yakshis and Shalabhanjika. For the uninitiated, this is a term found in Indian art and literature with a variety of meanings. In Buddhist art, it means an image of a woman or Yakshi next to, often holding, a tree, or a reference to Maya under the sala tree giving birth to Siddhartha (Buddha). 

While Manoj does not invoke the historical representation of the Shalabhanjika or the Yakshi, there are several modern references to it in his feminine sculptures. Take for instance, the sculpture titled Sacred Bliss, that consists of a woman sitting atop a large full blooming lotus with a lotus in her hand as well which she smells and enjoys. Her full body and relaxed poise definitely draw upon the Indian sculptures of yore.
One may also read a reference to the rich Indian history of feminine forms in the work titled Let Free, where a winged woman lets free a tiny bird, echoing that brilliant moment of flight even though she stands earth bound. 

Manoj has also engaged in creating canvases and drawings on paper of his sculptural works, in some instances they work as a two-dimensional study before he creates the sculpture. In some instances, they are an independent expression that carries the same love for the human form that we see in his sculptural works.   

To sum up Agarwal’s sculptural oeuvre and repertoire, the full-bodied forms of both his men and women are a delight to engage with as they brush against the contemporary as well the historical aspects of sculpture. He presents the viewer with sculptural forms that can be appreciated on many levels without engaging in a complicated narrative, they are just there in joyous simplicity and they are richly endowed with readings that can be both contemporary as well as historic. He celebrates the human form and brings to his viewers and art aficionados a variety that is enriching, stimulating as well as tranquil.  

Georgina Maddox

Art Critic and Curator