Artist: Sudarshan Shetty
Curator: Hasan Bülent Kahraman
It is an obvious fact that life involves constant change, transformation and translation. Since Heraclitus, we know that it is not possible to step into the same river twice. Ancient Greek philosophy was divided into two around fire and water. Fire was transformation. Water was the change brought about by time. But differentiation formed the essence of both: the transformation of matter. The transforming matter and time are related to memory. Each transformation reminds and verifies the reality of memory once again. Memory is not continuous. It records stages. Just like culture being made up of layers.
Sudarshan Shetty’s artworks deal with matter and time and memory all at the same time. The works address their cultural frameworks and compositions. Being broken up is a difficult process. It shatters the matter into pieces and detaches it from itself. Repairing, on the other hand, is holding on to time and matter. But every repair is a trace of time. Shetty seeks the trace of time within the reality of cultures. The fusion of two different materials is a reconciliation of two different truths and cultures.
Culture is the human being. Even if it is formed on its own, the world is ours, it is solidified through our perception and intellect. Therefore, the change is my transformation. Everything is either moving away from me or arriving at me. With all that change, Shetty is making reference to the tragedy of humanity’s universal existence. He marks humanity’s search for a path, trapped between time, culture and matter. Much of what has changed and remained unchanged along the line from Ancient Greece to our present day is hidden in the artworks of Shetty.