Recycled Metal Design Object Catalogue

Recycled Metal Design Objects

Robin Passi

Recycled Metal Design Objects by

Robin Passi

at Romain Rolland Gallery Alliance Francaise 72, Lodhi Estate August, 2013

Arushi Arts

Waste Metal Revival Artistic endeavour has two qualities. The first is that every work of art has a place in the artistic tradition of one’s country and the world. In other words despite claims to the contrary, there is nothing that is absolutely new in art. Secondly, every work of art must be original to attract the eye of the viewer.

Robin Passi’s Recycled Metal objects are part of a trend that blends elements of design and art in our contemporary artistic tradition with elements that have become obsolete before their time. A number of artists like Anjolie Ela Menon, Satish Gujral, Atul Sinha and Subodh Gupta, to name only a few, have created such works, but each has done it in his or her own manner. Robin has done the same but it is to his credit that he has also thought out things in his own way.

It is the expression of an artist born in the spring of 1997 when the foundations of our consumerist culture and built-in obsolescence were both well under way. As such he grew up in a world in which objects became dated almost as soon as they came off the shop-floor as there was so much competition among producers, increased accessibility and keeping-up-with-the-Joneses going on. The younger generation was bound to react to it, but the point is how?

Robin does so from a considerable perception of his subject as he has been an intern at the Thomas Heatherwick Design Studio followed up by summer courses on ‘Building a Better Mouse-Trap: Introduction to Design’ and ‘Modern Rapid Prototyping Techniques’ at Brown University in USA in 2012 and 2013 after having shown photographs of his in exhibitions at the Oberoi and Alliance Francaise in 2011 and 2012. Moreover, constant contact with the artist Subodh Gupta and with the designing skills of Phillippe Starck have also helped to deepen his understanding.

His perceptions are very much his own, though. He notes how in the rush for the impact of the immediate present we are losing out on the historical dimension of an object which carries not only elements of design in it, but is a repository of the memories and incidents of an individual’s life related to it. This dimension is lost when objects become cast-aways. And by regaining this dimension from cast-off objects he is able to remind us how consumerism is making us ignorant of a lot we need to preserve in our lives before it is discarded thoughtlessly.

This he does forcefully, relying on the contrast of metal objects and reflective glass surfaces, which evoke the shiny packaging of objects of consumption with the rough and rusty surfaces of waste. At the same time the process of putting them together into new uses awakens one to the diversity inherent in things as they develop over time. So crankshafts become candle stands, aluminium waste a table and rusty springs the base of stools and so on. It is to the credit of the artist that he uses natural surfaces as far as possible giving his work its classic look of a procedural post-modernism cloaked in a modernist framework. Robin’s capacity to cut across the traditional borders of disciplines without losing the quest of a classic line allows him to be contemporary without being gimmicky. He obviously looks out for diversity but not at the cost of obscuring his message about the temporal life of art objects that permeates their formal character as much as aesthetic principles inherent in them.

The artist is young. He is attracted by trends that are dominant and accepted, and he is familiar with the names that characterize them. But then he makes them instrumental to his expression and not the other way round.

This gives one the confidence that he will pursue the journey he has begun with the dedication it demands that will make his expression valid for the future as well.

Suneet Chopra Art Critic, Writer.

4 Panels with Candle Holders | Old Truck Chassis Base | 120" X 138" | Iron

4 Candle Stand Edition of 8 | Cam Shaft & Crank Pulley | 16" X 4.5" | Iron

4 Candle Stand Edition of 8 | Iron Crank Shaft | 17" X 4.5" | Iron

Glass Console | Old Iron Scrap & Glass | 60" X 28" | Iron & Glass

2 Side Tables | Old Iron Scrap & Glass | 24" X 18" | Iron & Glass

2 Square Mirror | Pulley Cam Shaft | 26" | Iron Flat Strips, Mirror

Console Edition of 8 | Old Springs & Iron Sheet Automotive Paint | 32" X 50" | Iron

2 Pedstals | Crank Shaft, Iron Rod & Glass Top | 36" X 19" | Iron & Glass

168 Mirror Installation | Iron Inner Old Bearing | Big 4.5” Medium 4” Small 3.5” Extra Small 2.5” | Iron & Mirror

1 Lamp | Piston & Iron Rod | 9.9" X 21" | Aluminium & Iron

2 Lamps | Iron Cam Shaft & Pulley | 5.5" X 18" | Iron

Stool | Old AC Condenser & Automotive Paint | 24" X 19" | Aluminium

Chair | Old Springs & Old Steel Pipe Chair, Automotive Paint | 25" X 20" | Iron & Steel

2 Stool Edition of 8 | Cycle Chain Automotive Paint | 14" X 18" | Iron

Robin Passi Passionate about Art and Design, Robin Passi has been exhibiting his works since October 2011. Robin’s first Solo Art Exhibition was held at The Oberoi Hotel in New Delhi in 2011 and his second Solo Exhibition on the Wagah Border was held at The Alliance Française, New Delhi in 2012. Having visited the Wagah gate, a gate that lets the present in from a painful past that is common to nations on either side of this border, Robin decided to capture this experience through photography, exhibiting the army parade which marches in perfect synchronisation on both sides of the border and the energy of the people caught in the throes of patriotism. Robin’s works can be viewed at: www.robinpassi.com. Committed to giving back to society what he has got from it, Robin ensured that all proceeds from the solo exhibitions were donated to The Delhi Society for the Welfare of Special Children, The Okhla Center, New Delhi.

Furthermore, Robin is the Writer and Photographer of a Book entitled ‘The Beauty of Life’, which was published on behalf of The Delhi Society for the Welfare of Special Children, New Delhi in 2012. After visiting The Delhi Society’s center in New Delhi, Robin was touched by the work that they were doing to help under privileged children with special needs gain access to the help they needed. To showcase the work they were doing, Robin produced a book entitled ‘The Beauty of Life’ for them. The intent of this book was to capture portraits of the children, through photographs that he took, and display the work that the NGO was doing to impact their lives. Robin published the book and held an exhibition of his digitally enhanced photographic prints on canvas.

To extend his learning in the areas of Art and Design, Robin has attended two summer courses at Brown University: “Modern Rapid prototyping Techniques” and “Building a Better Mouse Trap: An Introduction to Design”. He has also interned at the Heatherwick Studio in London, a studio known for having worked with an extensive range of design disciplines, including architecture, engineering, transport and urban planning to furniture, sculpture and product design, with its focus on innovative design.

All proceeds from the Exhibition will go to The Delhi Society for Welfare of Special Children. www. robinpassi.com

www.archanapress.com