Sculpture from Scrap

Published in "The HINDU Business Line"

Life - Arts & Crafts
He steels the show!
An artist who has beautified Bhilai with exquisite works crafted from the township's proud product..
Chitra Ramaswamy

Devangan with his Nataraj sculpture

He blazed his way into the Limca Book of Records in 2004 with his smallest creation — a 0.4-mm idol of Lord Ganesha, and hopes to one day make it to the Guinness Book of World Records as well. He has beautified Bhilai Steel Township with his aesthetic landscaping, and is involved in redesigning historical landmarks in Chhattisgarh, including Sirpur and Bhoramdeo, by developing gardens filled with artworks made of scrap, metal, clay and concrete. His works, which were exhibited in Birmingham, UK, have attracted several clients from abroad. His exquisite carvings on rice grain depicting historical monuments and Hindu deities have won accolades.

Meet Ankush Devangan, holder of six postgraduate degrees and on his way to the seventh, who began his career as a driver at the Bhilai Steel Plant in Chhattisgarh. Creative efforts
Made from soft stone, the detailing on his 0.4-mm Ganesha idol are visible only through a magnifying glass. The tiny masterpiece took shape after 500 attempts, and an entire year's untiring labour! “It was a meditation, a sadhna of sorts,” reflects Devangan. “I was inspired to create this idol when I learnt that the smallest idol ever crafted was one of Gautam Buddha, measuring half an inch, somewhere in Afghanistan.”

A huge 42-ft long, 38-ft high copper-coloured sculpture of the Gitopadesa, erected on a 7-ft-high platform, adorns the Civic Centre in Bhilai township. The piece weighing 120 tonnes, made from steel, iron and concrete, took 10 months to complete. The inspiration for the sculpture came from his belief that “work is worship and there is no greater religion than that of karma or doing work” which, he says, perfectly suits the industrial town of Bhilai. A few kilometres away you'll find his majestic Nataraj idol on the lawns of the Bhilai Hotel. The circumference of the idol is adorned with 21 smaller idols in different dance poses. These poses are replicated on a lower frieze. The front and back of this solid idol, again crafted out of steel and concrete, are alike. So you can see the dancing Shiva's face from either side. Devangan has also crafted an unconventional skeletal structure of Radha-Krishna at Maitrayi Bagh, a sprawling garden in the township. The abstract form shows two idols made from steel sheets and a “heart of steel” separating them, symbolic of the materialistic modern man.

His tryst with art
Devangan's tryst with art began in early childhood with paintings of Bollywood stars. Recognising his talent, his parents encouraged him and he began painting national leaders and landscape paintings. Growing up in the Dhalli Rajhara mines area of Chhattisgarh, Devangan had easy access to materials, often scrap, that allowed him to venture into sculpting. With time, he equipped himself with a Diploma in Fine Arts. He would spend endless hours experimenting with an assortment of materials including BHQ (Banded Haematite Quartzite), sandstone, marble, iron, steel, brass, cement and soft stone.

Heart in steel:Bhilai artist Ankush Devangan's abstract Radha-Krishna
Today, Devangan's works of art are the pride of the Dhalli Rajhara area.
Joggers, walkers and cyclists passing through the avenues of bamboo, teak and sal trees at the Sapthagiri Park, maintained by Bhilai Steel Plant, cannot fail to notice his sculptures adorning the 10-acre green sprawl.

Diverse subjects
His sculptures touch on diverse subjects. ‘Udaan', for instance, embodies the power of flight or freedom of today's woman. According to Devangan, “In trying to break free, she is constantly coming up against forces that try to stop her. So instead of making this piece a free-flying one, I've given it a twist, a curve, symbolic of the obstacles she experiences, how she has to constantly battle even against her own conflicting emotions in the process.”

‘Earthquake' has the appearance of a natural stone with panic-stricken people in the grip of a natural calamity, and is crafted out of dolomite. ‘Steelman' in the colours of steel is actually made from concrete and symbolises the hard-working employees of Bhilai Steel Plant.

The artist believes that yoga, safety and health are the core issues of human existence, especially in an industrial setup, and his creation ‘Yoga' — the safety triangle — symbolises this. As a tribute to the organisation that employs him, Devangan crafted ‘Ek Sanyojan', entirely from scrap iron, and this is a complicated structure symbolising the wheel of work.


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