Frozen in time… the material is glass

Artist Sisir Sahana's love story with glass goes back a long way. After completing Degree and Post-Graduation in Painting from Kalabhavan, Santiniketan, he began working more and more with stain glasses, even though he has been dabbling with print making and terracotta sculptures. It was in London at St Martins College of Art & Design, in 1994, he first came in contact with the hot process of working with glass. He learnt the different techniques of working with the glass and it was here that he saw how the glass is heated in the oven and the painting is fused on to it. He came back to Hyderabad and started his studio at his home in Banjara Hills.

It was just the beginning. The following years would bring many more influences, learnings and changes in his approach to glass, which managed to stay his obsession. "Glass is what kept me engaged and it did not allow me to work with any other media. It is exciting to control the media – scientifically, chemically and aesthetically," shares the artist, whose fellowship in 2000 took him to the US. He worked with the finest of the glass at the Creative Glass Centre of America. Until then he was working with sheet glass. In the US, he began to learn to make glass from the raw material, silica. "This was the time I understood how to mold glass to my requirement. I was thoroughly enjoying the process," he shares.

Sisir Sahana came back to the Hyderabad and a studio was set up for him at the LV Prasad Eye Hospital. This was the time he also realised that in India there was no glass made for the artists, and so began making his own glass. "There were the likes of Ferozabad glass, but none for art. I decided to make my own glass furnace to melt glass. I started making 2D glass sculptures and began to fuse my painting quality into the glass," he adds.

Each time the artist showcased his new work, it was like opening the door to newer forms that have undergone the process of melting, moulding, fusing and casting, almost like being born anew with newer dimensions and layers. And it was always nature, human form, and the conversation of the living with the environment around that influenced his works. It is interesting to note how the ever-inquisitive artist has been on a path of self-discovery and has evolved each time enriched with knowledge and skill, and how his art evolved along with him.

He explains, "The entirety of thought that travels through the mind get boiled in fire. The earth's particles melt into one. It is not just the glass that is moulded to the desired shape but my inner being that gets morphed. It is the creation of a human. I was there to witness it. I am there today as well. I am searching within layers of crystalline and non-crystalline soil to see myself. I do not see any god of magical power, but see the power of nature, nature's geological phenomena. I talk to them in visual language, performing language while drawing, moulding, fusing glass, casting glass, polishing. Physical activities synchronise with one form in time and space."

He says his glass sculptures are 'Frozen in Time', a thought that manifests with much more clarity in his latest body of work 'Old Seeds' that he produced during a residency programme in Pittsburg Glass Center, United States, a project supported by Kalakriti Art Gallery, Hyderabad.

"For the latest work I used different forms that I picked, melted and used in my works; these kinds of things can only be made in a working studio. I had this idea for some time, but I could not do it for lack of infrastructure. At the Pittsburg Glass Centre, I could make something very different and was able to incorporate all my previous experiences of working with glass and have completely enjoyed the process. Creating the layers took a lot of time, and different techniques were involved in fusing and casting each and every image," he relates.

The resulting forms are three dimensional and more. There are various layers with discarded forms, melted and fused within, representing life emerging, growing and evolving into a free soul, trying to break free, yet frozen and trapped. Sisir has allowed the glass to take its natural course, before giving it a form of his own. "I engage with the wasted objects thrown away by other artists/artisans. They create and break while making. They break their thoughts. I pick up and recreate in remolding. I use my own pre-used objects. Integrate them. Reignite and recycle to recreate. Gradually, glass starts holding independent creative ideals. Art in Artists evolves into an inter-relationship between material and concept," shares the artist, who loves every minute of working with glass, despite it being one of the most difficult and time consuming medium.