Arzan Khambatta

Architect turned sculptor and Mumbai born artist Arzan Khambatta started sculpting at a very young age, later graduating with a Bachelors in Architecture from Rachna Sansad Academy of Architecture, Mumbai. He has practiced as an artist for the last three decades using creative conceptual moorings to reuse and reimagine scrap found in junkyards continuing the tradition of other local sculptors such as Adi Davierwala and Pilloo Pochkhanawala. One of his first works, Scraptures is a representative example of his endeavours.

Frequently, Arzan works with fresh sheets of metal. The result of his filing, bending, moulding, cutting, welding and burning is a collection of work that is dramatic in impact: rivers of lava surging through charged valleys, flaming planets spiralling dizzily in space among others. He often uses light and shadow to heighten the nuances and moods in his works.

At the beginning of 2020, he exhibited a site-specific installation, WALLS, inspired by Pink Floyd. The concept revolved around our lives which are defined by walls, both physical and metaphoric, a presence synonymous with human existence through our efforts of dividing, securing, and alienating ourselves that it enters as an object into our sub-conscious,imagination to which the artist plays critique. These ‘walls’ can be seen as instruments of separation, use them to keep ‘others’ out and differentiate ‘us’ from ‘them’ both physically and emotionally. Playing with simple words and grand philosophies, he serves up the idea of barriers being unnatural, unwanted, and detrimental to a humanistic world, as well as the idea that boundaries give us a sense of order and control. He was also referring to the invisible and emotive walls that separate us in more insidious ways, of the walls knowing our inner selves as we reveal to them our secrets. Taken as a whole, these walls become a metaphor for our shells- a surface to escape behind, to shelter in, but also an organic part of us. The niche symbolically get filled with the memorabilia and paraphernalia of life. They frame our bonds, our links, and the twists and turns of our lives. They hide us. They reveal us. They become us.

Khambatta rises convincingly to all challenges of his medium- whether wood, iron, steel, copper, resin, even 3D printing and his myriad techniques add layers to his work, making every form unique and all his site specific sculptures just right !

Of his many works that dot Mumbai, his very first commissioned sculpture was ‘The Mughal’ for Jewel of India at Nehru Center and now they dot the landscape of Mumbai from north to south.