"Efficient Landscape 14" by Vyom Mehta

12 x 45 inches

Steel

About the artwork

Vyom challenges the prevailing capitalistic pursuit of "Convenience" as a paramount goal in contemporary human existence. We relentlessly strive for this pedestal without questioning its validity or the methods employed to achieve it. This raises the need to recognize our privileged positions as individuals and diverse human types.

Taking a deeper step, Vyom's exploration becomes a contemplation of human taxonomy, urging a necessary cultural evolution. Accepting his upper-class, upper-caste, English-educated, liberal parentage, and cisgender heteronormative male identity, along with the profound privilege it affords, Vyom's works focus on the confluence of pluralism and ecological post-humanism. They prompt viewers to transcend individual perspectives, leaving the destination open-ended. From tree-planting barter systems to efficient landscapes crafted from reclaimed steel, his works manifest as immersive spatial interventions, challenging preconceptions.

Delving into the future, Vyom prompts contemplation on the societal expectations and responsibilities tied to artistic freedom, serving as a grounding force amid the relentless pursuit of the convenience pedestal. At its core, this is a critical examination of human-centricity and its ties to capitalism. At the same time it is a re-evaluation of our relationship with the natural world, advocating for a shift towards ecological oneness.

About the artist

Vyom's work evokes a diverse world of non-human presences, beings in continuing flux; through play and discovery, and shifts of power – in being, constant. Vyom carries the musings of his early apprenticeship with Lynda Bengalis in America as much as his more recent work with the potters of Mandla, Madhya Pradesh, Molela, Rajasthan and Poshina Gujarat. Vyom recently experimented with social media as a medium for work in continuation of a project he did as part of ‘5 million incidents’ supported by the Goethe Institut Max Mueller Bhavan. His most recent exhibits include a showcase at the Kasturbhai Lalbhai Museum of Art, Ahmedabad. Vyom studied sculpture at the Faculty of Fine Arts at M.S.U, Baroda. He has exhibited works at the India Art Fair Delhi, Jaipur Lit Fest and has had multiple group shows across the country. This is his 5th solo show and his first solo presentation in Mumbai.