These eight artists use unconventional, and sometimes bizarre, mediums to create their art. Their pieces are nothing short of otherworldly and thought-provoking. Take a look.
There exist innumerable mediums and possibilities to express your creativity and imagination, and some artists stand out among the lot with their unconventional ways to create great pieces of work. As bizarre or weird as their mediums may sound, their art is nothing short of thought-provoking and otherworldly.
Meet a few such talented artists from India, who make amazing art pieces using the most unlikely mediums:
1. Vivek Patil
A renowned visual storyteller, Vivek Patil uses light to create interactive experiences. Credited as India’s only light painter, he has been creating wonders on luminescent surfaces using rays of light.
Vivek, who also creates sand art and speed paintings, has worked with several popular brands such as Mercedes-Benz, Eureka Forbes, Asian Paints, Pepsi IPL Team Kings XI Punjab, Maybelline, Colgate, Philips, and so on. He also got the opportunity to participate in several popular talent reality shows like India’s Got Talent and Entertainment Ke Liye Kuch Bhi Karega.
2. Saad
Hyderabad-based artist Md Saaduddin, or Saad, has been creating brilliant sculptures and functional art pieces using scrap materials like iron, steel, copper etc.
Saad grew up seeing his father, a vintage car restorer, toiling around machines. He was inspired to delve into scrap art and mastered it with the experience he received while helping his father at work and by watching people doing the art online.
He makes stunning sculptures using items from the recycling dump, ‘chor bazaar,’ and automobile spares. Besides India, he has also showcased his work in different countries like the US, Mexico etc.
3. Reshmi Dey
Finding her calling in the creative glass industry, Reshmi Dey from Assam decided to use glass as a medium to express her creativity. Considered one of the top glass artists in the country, she defied several odds while entering a male-dominated industry.
She was exposed to the profession while working closely with the generations-old business families of Firozabad, known as the “glass capital” of India. In order to master the art, she even pursued formal training in glass techniques and technology from The International Glass Centre in Dudley in the United Kingdom.
In 2017, she established India’s first public access glass art studio in Delhi — Glass Sutra — along with her own company with the same name. Now, her brand works in innovating beautiful and luxurious glass products.
4. Bornali Bhattacharjee
Can we make art using bacteria? Of course we can, proves Bornali Bhattacharjee, who turned bacteria like Staphylococcus or Salmonella into art pieces.
In 2018, she represented the National Institute of Biomedical Genomics and even won second place for her bacteria art, in an international contest organised by the American Society of Microbiology (ASM) society.
Named ‘My Yellow Vision’, the art piece was created using Staphylococcus aureus in a petri dish on a layer of agar-agar (used as a growth medium for most bacteria).
5. Ramdas Kajave
Ramdas Kajave, an octogenarian from the town of Ichalkaranji in Maharashtra, is noted for his stunning embroidery work.
Over the past several decades, he has created portraits of several renowned personalities and celebrities like Lokmanya Tilak, Rabindranath Tagore, Lata Mangeshkar, Abdul Kalam, Aishwarya Rai, Hema Malini, Madhubala and so on.
He uses at least 20 different colours while working on a hand-embroidered piece or bharatkam.
6. Midhun R
Ever imagined something as unlikely as human hair being used as a medium of art?
Midhun R (27) from Kerala has been working with hair for the past several years, and was first introduced to this unique art form while interning at an organisation in Puducherry. His first and most celebrated work is the portrait of actor Marilyn Monroe, which he completed in just three hours.
7. Subhashini Chandramani
Bengaluru-based Subhashini Chandramani combines her passion for photography and gardening through the medium of art. She has been creating nature-inspired art using flowers, leaves and several other natural materials.
Besides, she showcases all her art work through Instagram and Twitter, on her handle Neelavanam (blue skies).
With thousands of followers on Instagram, she makes beautiful artwork using wilted flowers, petals, leaves and even colourful vegetables.
8. Parth Kothekar
Ahmedabad artist Parth Kothekar cuts out beautiful and delicate art pieces from paper.
Parth, who started paper art as a hobby, eventually took it as a profession after receiving a good response for his work. He carves out the intricate and hand-drawn designs on paper, using surgical knives to create paper-cut masterpieces.
Sources:
Md Saaduddin a scrap metal artist by Nikhita Gowra; published by Deccan Chronicle on 4 December 2022.
Reshmi Dey: A Woman is Like Glass — Born Out of Fire, Fragile yet Strong; published by The Punch Magazine on 8 March 2022.
This Man Spends 500 Hours on a Single Embroidered Painting That No One Wants by Sanket Jain; published by VICE on 14 June 2018.
Meet Midhun RR who creates portraits using human hair by Susan Joe Philip; published by The Hindu on 11 January 2021.
(Edited by Divya Sethu)