An Oyssey in Granite

Carving granite is an evocative endeavour for Odisha’s woman sculptor Nivedita Mishra. She is dedicated to carving and it connects not just with the density and intensity of the granite locks she works upon but upon the physicality and materials of the smaller elements she works upon. Carving as sculptural practice has a deep, ancient, global history and this connection between a vision for modern sculpture and methods of making has been employed for centuries, millennia even, across the globe and this is why her works appeal deeply to the common man.

Inner Spirit
“My connection with stone involves spirituality and reverence for the spirit that dwells within,” says Nivedita as she puts together her series Odyssey at the Lalit Kala Akademi in a small cameo. Stone, she says, is about people and their journeys. “It has been on this earth much longer than man and for this reason the stone becomes our teacher, it is simply what my ancestors believe. As a sculptor, I visualise what the stone wants to become and I strive to help it bloom. The granite blocks I use speak to me by its texture and grains. I look at the characteristics of the granite, and then start carving.”

Articulating an emotion but when you look at the polished cylindrical series in her works you know that carving is not just simply a method of making sculpture for her. It is an articulation of a particular vision of the sculptor’s craft, inextricably bound up with the ‘aesthetic creed’ for what she sees as a physical processes of carving through the simplicity of language.

Her large work symbolises a cave with apertures that captures the sensations of making temple portals carved with chisels, hammers and mallets from hard, as well as resistant material. This fascination and critical attention to the processes and concept of ‘direct carving’ arguably keeps the commentary of the techniques of sculptural identities and corollaries as her insignia for conversations.

“I find strength, faith, and dignity through my heritage, yet I also find these same things in other cultures – and I derive inspiration and motivation from them as well,” says Nivedita as she runs her hands over her own carving of the triangular-temple cave.

Stones that speak
Looking at the smaller clusters of her work one feels as if the earth has created itself into a cathedral of beautiful treasure stones —uncountable shapes and textures, each one stamped with its own rich familial and cultural history. Each offers a puzzling mystery to explore; each tweaks our imagination, stimulates our curiosity and raises interesting questions. In the series that echo treasures and boxes and cavities the set of four with lids are the finest in finesse and fervour.

In yet another pair called “ You and Me” we can perceive the grace of the cylindrical column that begins with the magic of the stone. We can imagine how she fills her studio with about many lifetimes worth, of stones still waiting to be carved.

It’s the potential of each piece that brings her great joy, she says. Every carving block is filled with a silent beauty calling for attention. Every stone an invitation for creative expression that echoes the infinitude of man and woman as individuals as consorts as friends walking their own paths sometimes crossing sometimes melding.

Moulding triangular bases in the cluster of stones we can see the earthiness and the balance of vision and vitality. “ I’ve always been inspired by the capacity of a block of stone,” says Nivedita, on how she can create a one-of-a-kind groups or single works and she likes to create her own language when her hands touch each sculpture and work it from start to finish.

Most sculptors in history, created a composition in a malleable material, made any adjustments desired, then either copied it in stone themselves or had it done by a craft-person.

Nivedita’s series is about the odyssey of man - the odyssey Lord Tennyson speaks of in his poem The Brook when he says -  For men may come and men may go…But I go on forever.