MAHESH VISHWAKARMA India
Overview
“Thank you Space118 for this Grant and for giving me financial support for my hard work. It gives a mentorship session from a well known contemporary artist of our time. It also gives a platform to showcase my artwork to a larger community. Therefore, I encourage other artists to apply for this Grant.”
Mahesh Vishwakarma (Kolkata, India) completed his BFA nd MFA) in Sculpture, Rabindra Bharati University, 2020 and 2022 respectively.
Coming from Dhanbad, the coal capital of India, Mahesh’s work draws from and responds to his hometown both in terms of form and material. His works relate the struggle of labourers working in the coal mines as a class and community, pointing to their psychological and material aspirations. He uses coal as a metaphor that evolves beyond its material value, as a framing reference for the history of this struggle – a process that places the material in contrast with the hierarchic and feudal sense of the non-perishable.