editorial
What drives the 93-year-old sculptor behind the World’s Tallest Statue?
Vertica Dvivedi with artist and sculptor Shri Ram Vanji Sutar
As we reached the studio of artist & sculptor Shri Ram Vanji Sutar, we were greeted by the majestic sight of massive sculptures of prominent personalities at the entrance, which continued throughout the compound, not sparing even the balconies and terrace. Even the interiors looked more like a museum. While the energy and passion of the 93-year-old artist is amazing, what stayed with me was a story that Anil Sutar, his architect son, narrated during our conversation. He reminisced about a time when as a 5-6 years old boy, he was walking with his father near one of his installations. “Dad created the statue of Chambai Devi at the Gandhi Sagar Dam in Madhya Pradesh, one of his first notable works, a monument standing tall at 45 feet. This masterpiece carved out of a single block depicts mother Chambal with her two children- Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan symbolizing the brotherhood between the two states. It was a beautiful sight and dad was notably proud of it.”
involvement and creation of more than 50 monumental structures, the “Statue of Unity” in Gujarat is standing as the World’s tallest at 182 meters. Not resting at that, more work by him are coming up which are expected to beat even this record. Almost infusing life to a statue, he aims at reaching the peak of perfection in creating a figure closest to real. He believes in aspiring & dreaming very Big. Coming from a carpenter’s family with meager resources, could not deviate him from envisioning the best & biggest. “With the completion of one, I wished and dreamt of carving even more challenging and bigger statues. My life is like a dream which I saw and believed. On getting the opportunities, I have sculpted them to be true,” he said. We salute the passion & spirit of Ram Vanji Sutar. Our exclusive interaction with the father & son is coming up in the next issue with more details about the making of the Statue of Unity. Keep reading Surfaces Reporter magazine!
As they were walking by, Senior Sutar asked the little boy what he thought about the statue. As an innocent child who was looking from a distance, he replied, “It is nice but quite small.” Shri Ram V Sutar looked lovingly at the boy and responded, “One day, we will sculpt much bigger statues.” Ram Vanji Sutar is driven by a deep passion for work. He has never looked back and today, with more than sixty active years of
VERTICA DVIVEDI Editor-in-Chief, Surfaces Reporter, vertica@surfaces.in Founder, WADe Asia, www.wadeasia.com
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Glimpses from Venice Biennale 2018
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MATERIAL
POETRIES november 2018 | www.surfacesreporter.com | 8
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