Ranjani Shetter

Just a Bit More

Just a Bit More

Sun Sneezers Blow Light Bubbles

I found Ranjani Shetter in an article in the New York Times and promptly googled her. What I found was absolutely stunning installations. Shetter was born and still works in her home country of India. Her craft is very labor intensive, recalling the eastern culture she grew up in.

Her work, reminiscent of Tara Donovon, is repetitive organic forms that interact with the space in which they exist. She uses a combination of man made and natural materials and her work is both very logical and patterned as well as chaotic and random. The materials are often found in junk yards and reworked and recycled into another life. The work is made up of many small and humble pieces that create a whole that is magnificent and strong.

Her use of junkyard materials illustrates the multiple lives that possessions have before they are destroyed. Old cars are passed from owner to owner and then scrapped for pieces and left to rust. She pushes the utility of these materials even further by granting them one last purpose.

These installations also make the invisible atmosphere surrounding them very relevant. The circular sculpture in the last picture might be hollow, but in labeling them bubbles Shetter makes the air surrounding the sculpture relevant and called it to attention.

Simply put, her sculptures are beautiful. The piece can be appreciated for the beauty of the final form, the small delicate details close up, and the labor process which created it. They make a world of their own and invite the viewer to be part of it.