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Standing tall
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CRAFT Big wonders in small packets
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Photo: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar
Leaders in my hand Shambhunath displays images of APJ Abdul Kalam, Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, Pratibha Patil and Manmohan Singh
From a tin box barely measuring six inches, he removes heaps of soft cotton, very carefully. After a few layers are removed, out pop our sari-clad President Pratibha Patil, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in his kurta-pyjama and Nehru-cut jacket, At
al Behari Vajpayee in dhoti-kurta-jacket and other national leaders — all measuring between a half inch and 1.5 inches.
And the man who cuts them to size is Shambhunath, a craftsperson from Jharkhand who specialises in miniature sculptures in limestone, soft marble and stone. Apart from these, Shambhunath has created works like Shaheed Smarak in which figure national icons like Gandhi, the Ashok Pillar. He groups images of two revolutionaries of opposite ideologies Shaheed Bhagat Singha and Swami Vivekananda in one. and others. “I made them as my tribute to the nation on the occasion of Republic Day,” says a smiling Shambhunath.
His other creations include a Statue of Liberty 1.25 inches tall, tribal leader Birsa Munda, whose photographs are said to be unavailable in India, and Britney Spears in two-and-a-half inches.
On view
Shambhunath who is displaying his sculptures at the Crafts Museum till January 31 noon, doesn’t limit himself to these works. He shows his concern for victims of the tsunami through soft marble sculptures in which a child is engulfed by waves while the mother rushes to save him, or an entire family is tossed up by the sky-high tidal wave.
A sculpture of Lakshmi turns into Ganesh if you flip it to over. Just like when you turn over a man walking with a fishing net, he becomes a man carrying a woman with open hair on his shoulders — all up to a maximum of three inches high.
Says Shambunath of his creations, “I create for my passion and to bring a smile to people’s face.”
RANA SIDDIQUI
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