[Reader-list] Rajinder Tiku Preserves India’s Creative Traditions In Stone

[Pawan Durani]

*Rajinder Tiku Preserves **India**’s Creative Traditions In Stone*



*By Dr. Ajay Chrungoo*

Rajender Tiku is a famed sculpture artist of Kashmir. His contributions to
the art of sculpture has received wide acclaim even at the international
level. In recognition of his services, Tiku was recently awarded the
prestigious *Pollock Krasner Foundation Grant. *He was invited to
International Symposium at Switzerland *(International De Sculptures, Sion)
*in 1998 and Israel *(Stone in **Galilee**, International Stone Symposium,
Maalot-Tarshiha) *in 2001. He also participated in international exhibitions
- *Exhibitions of Sculptures at La-Grenette, Sion, Switzerland (1998),
Volume and Form, Singapore, 1998-99, Feuersinne Erden Germany, 2001,
Guilin-Yuzi Paradise Contemporary World Sculpture Show, China (2003).*

In 1999, Lalit Kala Akademi honoured him with *'Eminent Artist' *award. Tiku
has been recipient of National Award for Sculpture (1993), 8th Triennale
India (International) Award for Sculpture (1994) and J&K State Award for
Sculpture (1978-79). Department of Culture, Ministry of Human Resources
awarded him with fellowships (Junior) in 1993-95 and (Senior) in 1997-99.

Rajinder Tiku was nominated juror by Lalit Kala Academy, New Delhi in 1998.
Since then he has served on jury panel for Exhibitions of Lalit Kala Akademy
and J&K Cultural Academy (2000, 2005); for Kalidas Samman (2002, 2004); for
Lalit Kala Samman (National Award) 2002; and AIFACS All India Exhibition and
Awards, 1999. He has conducted five solo exhibitions - Sculpted Images India
Habitat Centre, New Delhi), 2003; Art Heritage (New Delhi) 1990, 1992, 1995,
1998, 2003; and ABC Foundation (Varanasi), 1998.

The noted sculptor has participated in prestigious group exhibition in
different Cultural centres of India. These include “Only Connect”, The
Essence of Life (New Delhi, 2002); Combine voices for the New Century (New
Delhi, 2000); Edge of the Century, Art Today (New Delhi, 1998) Major Trends
in Indian Contemporary Art (New Delhi, 1997), The Indian Contemporary Art -
Post Independence (New Delhi, 1997), Harmony Show (Mumbai, 1996-1997); A
Tree In My Life (New Delhi, 1995), Sculpture -95 (New Delhi), 8th & 7th
Triennale (New Delhi, 1991 and 1994), Trembling Images, an exhibition of
works by Kashmiri Artists (New Delhi, 1991), Bharat Bhawan Biennale (Bhopal,
1990), AIFACS International Exhibition of Graphics, New Delhi and Chandigarh
(1983), All India Exhibition of Drawing (Chandigarh), Contemporary Indian
Art Exhibition, Jammu 1985.

Rajinder Tiku has also been a regular seminarist on Indian Sculpture and has
attended International Sculpture Symposiums at Bhopal (2002) and
Hyderabad(Shilpam-2002). He took part in International Stone Carving
Symposium
(Stone-2000) at Baroda and International Sculptors' Symposium at
Varanasi(1999). Besides this he spoke at International Sculptors'
Symposium
organised by IPCL, India at Nagothane (1995), Clay Symposium India at Goa in
1994 and Indo-Japan Symposium on Granite Carving-Baroda (2004). He has been
participant in Artists’ Camps at Bhubneshwar (2004), Pune (2003), Port Blair
(2003), Jahnor (1998), Surajkund (1998), Gwalior (1996) and All India
Sculpture Camp, organised by J&K Cultural Academy, 1980.

Tiku’s works adorn many prestigious and public collections e.g. J&K Cultural
Akademy, Lalit Kala Akademy, National Gallery of Modern Art (New Delhi); Art
Heritage (New Delhi), MP Lalit Kala Academy, Ram Chhatpar Shilp Niyas
(Varanasi), City of Sion, Switzerland, City of Maalot - Tarshiha, Israel,
beside IPCL India, Jyoti Ltd. Baroda, NTPC, India, Transpek Silox Ltd.
Baroda etc. Rajinder Tiku has also flair for writing. His articles have been
published in reputed journals like *Lalit Kala Contemporary*, *Art Heritage*and
*Kashmir** Sentinel. *He has been practicing and teaching sculpture since
1979 at the Institute of Music and Fine Arts, Jammu. During this period, in
his art, he has tried to explore the local possibilities vis-a-vis material
and thought. He is working hard to inculcate in his students a sense of
affinity for their surroundings and transform the same into a sculptural
idiom, that has a global identity but at the same time does not sacrifice
the essential individual character. Tiku hails from Wadwan village in Budgam
(Kashmir) district. He had his schooling from the local village school and
secondary education from SP College, Srinagar. He holds Bachelor's Degree in
Science and Law. Tiku received his training in Sculpture from the Instituteof
Music and Fine Arts, Srinagar.

In formation of his objects, Tiku has used stone, terracotta, ceramics,
metals, scrap and their combinations. The forms that have emerged are
ambiguous, metamorphic, symbolic or sacred, generating their own place.
About his art, Tiku observes, *“Man made shapes attract me much more than
the natural ones, especially those which in one or the other way depict
traces and signs of transition of time, right on their surfaces. Be it a
well-used agricultural implement or an ordinary kitchen knife showing wear
and tear. All such things act as visual stimuli, invoking a sense of
nostalgia.”*

On the significance of sculpture, he remarks, *“Sculpture is a larger
phenomenon of which a medium and its execution into a particular form is
only a part. To each and every work, there is lot more beyond its medium.
Perhaps the beauty in its potential to reveal truth. The potential to work
on us and impart meaning to our existence.”*

*‘INTERFACE’:*

Of late, the noted sculptor has been involved in the project titled *INTERFACE.
*Through the *INTERFACE *he has been trying to bring out in a tangible form
the seemly intangible aspect of silent and sacred embedded in our tradition.
Tiku is of the view that if continuity of India’s ancient civilisation is to
be maintained, then its civil society has to realize and rebuild the
cultural traditions inherited from ancestors. He quotes Vedanta Siddhant *Rina
Triya-the triad of obligations *to drive home his point. In an observation
of profound significance, Tiku remarks : *"A society's grasp of its past
becomes a source for creativity in the present. It stimulates all forms of
contemporary expression allowing the meaning to seep through to the images,
shapes and a plethora of other cultural activities. While, looking at this
phenomenon of past and present in a continuum, where lines of distinction
between historical memories and personal experiences blur if not disappear,
we realise an eternal source of knowledge within our ourselves. A source,
which energizes us to flow on to be a part and parcel of this
continuum”. *Getting
inspired from objects ranging from mundane ones located in the immediate
surroundings to monuments located in the trajectory of timelessness, Tiku
perceives a quantum of images and symbols that seem to usher intellectual
and philosophical human endeavours into the realm of universal.

*'INTERFACE' *is a project that envisages an expression to sacred within the
format of contemporary sculpture. Seven is an auspicious number with
spiritual/cosmic connotations. Tiku has chosen seven places/regions -
Kashmir, Varanasi, Konark, Rajasthan, Mahabalipuram, Andhra Pradesh and
Maharashtra. He proposes to execute seven monumental stone sculptures which
in one-way or the other shall project the perceived contemporaneous at these
sites. The selection of the places has been made keeping in view the
cultural importance of these areas, their potential to inspire and stimulate
meaningful work in sculpture along with actual working possibility. This
project was conceived by Tiku while he was working at the ancient Khandagiri
Caves, Orissa. He attempted to carve a simple pillar, which from a
particular point would intensify the visual impact of the site in the
feeling of the onlooker. Through a focussed visual study of these sites, he
wants to evolve contemporary monuments and invoke the spirit of these sites.

His work, *Falling Columns *is an illustration of such an interface with the
historical monuments in Kashmir, carved in the local available lime-stone.
This 4'x4'x1½' monumental sculpture in a peculiar diagonal disposition is in
fact a tribute to the spiritual movement/response/activity that is generated
by such timeless movements. Tiku says that using of a similar material and
trying to catch on the aspect of mass and movement would generate the
intended interface. He is of the view that the display of these sculptures
in the vicinity of each monument would relive India’s continuous spiritual
creative traditions in particular and those of the rest of the world in
generalt **The author heads Panun Kashmir*
**
Source: Kashmir Sentinel