Chennai: All through her childhood, Hemalatha Senathipathi grew up watching her father, Senathipathi, bend the metal, creating art. As curious as she was, that made her take the same route, ending up as an artist.
Having done over 500 metal relief and sculptures in the past 30 years, she has won several awards, including the prestigious Tamilnadu State Award from Lalit Kala Akademi in 1991 for three of her works. Over the years, she has hosted several solo exhibitions and currently, she is exhibiting her creations in Chennai.
”Beginning from the school days, I sit next to my father to observe how he creates relief work which inspired me. Slowly, I began assisting him and later started working with metal all by myself. While the passion was still in infancy, I created pendants, earrings and other craft designs,” Hemalatha told News Today.
For the current exhibition, the artist has worked over two years, creating about 60 pieces, among which she handpicked 30 to display.
After few years of practicing relief work, she moved on to making sculptures made from copper.
Asked about the pieces that brought accolades, she said, ”It took a month to complete the three art pieces that were sold. However, it has not been an easy job. The entire process is quite laborious.”
Adding about the effort that goes into creating an art, she said, ”I acquire copper in bulk from wholesale market, which I use for making at least six pieces. Then comes onerous task – based on the design I want, I cut and bend the metal. Every part of the piece has to be welded and I take the help of a welder to complete the art work.”
After welding is done, she enamels the art with colours and polish to give a final touch.
”Due to arduous nature of the work, I had people ask me how I manage to do it despite being a woman that pushes me go beyond my comfort zone,” the artist answered when asked about what keeps her going.
Picking her favourite piece from the collections, she pointed out to a couple on the swing, named ”swinging brace”.
”Majority of the pieces are immovable; whereas, here the centre piece swings. I paid special attention for this one.”
Asked about the origin of this form of art, Hemalatha said, ”It is the same as our Indian traditional work.”
Giving an instance, she said, ”Take the case of walls, doors and ceilings of temples in our country, we can see minute details embossed on it. This metal relief work is the contemporary style of it.”
Although she learnt the art from her father, who himself is a notable artist from Cholamandal Artist Village, she ensures she has a style. ”I have made it a point that I have a unique style. I depict human emotions, African arts, Indian folk art and mythological characters among many others and I do not restrict myself only to a particular genre. To me, people should be at peace when they see my work,” Hemalatha said.
Speaking about the trends in the art, she said, ”The rise of online gallery and sales has led to dip in the number of people visiting exhibitions. People do not even have time to observe the details of the work and rather choose the easy way.”
Visit Hemalatha’s exhibition at Teynampet Art World and is on till 14th September except public holidays.