The story of a sculptor and his poetry of forms

Dimapur, Feb. 27 : Local sculptor H Akum Buchemhu was in the local dailies recently for his art exhibitions. It was at a very young age that Akup was drawn into art, participating in painting competition and performing short plays to name a few. A recipient of the Nagaland Governor’s Award in 2010, Buchemhu has been practising what he loves for ten years. He is a trained artist with a Bachelor of Fine Art from Indira Kala Sangit University in Chhattisgarh, and Master of Fine Art from Rabindra Bharati University in Kolkata. Having found interest in art from his school days, he has now not only the Nagaland Governor’s Award but a handful of others too. In 2008, he received a National Research Scholarship from Lalit Kala Akademi of New Delhi for one year at Srimanta Sankardev Kalashetra, Guwahati. After completing his one year at Srimanta Sankardev Kalashetra, he says ‘there was much more to learn about the art than what he has learned and decided to study fine art’. Buchemhu has already exhibited his works in several parts of the country besides having imparted workshops for art lovers across the region and country. Some of his works are in Delhi, Mumbai, Manipur, Canada, Kolkata Lalit Kala Akademi, Ahmadabad, Guwahati, and Nagaland to name a few. In his words: ‘I have a deep emotional / personal engagement with nature and all its natural habitats have been a liberating experience for me underlying the pain and sense of loss, being born in a suburban life style of environment. In my work I try to bring out the interrelationship between man and nature and the changes that are taking place. I am much interested and sensible in the process of growth, decay and discarded’. His work tries to revisit layers of information, space, time and memory. ‘In my work I refer to story, myth, and folk and try to interpret with the present scenario,’ he explains. Speaking about his work with Eastern Mirror, Buchemhu said he uses mixed media styles; he has keen interest in diversely-found objects and materials such as cotton, jute, twigs, branch, and terracotta etc with an objective to translating them into more cohesive forms. He also tries to explore technology, intake with men-made material. At present he is experimenting and using wood and stone as mediums. “A thing of beauty is a joy forever” by John Keats is one of his favourite quotes and without doubt he applies and live by it in his works. “I believe every medium has its own venerability and I try to explore and bring out the beauty within it and look into the area of compatibility between form object and material. I prefer to use naturally-found objects and juxtapose forms with such objects to create poetic visuals. The journey of exploring is beautiful,” he adds. Buchemhu’s recent works for the past five years experiment with the theme of changing environments. In his works, he attempts to interest viewers to create a notion of ‘force shaping growth’ in day to day contemporary life. Though he does not confine to a particular theme, every work that he has created is very personal to him because of the effort that he has put in. Art is a beautiful medium to tell the story at large. It reminds the person about who they actually are. Artists create bridges and contribute to enriching the soul to think more critically. Akup Buchemhu’s core vision is to open an art institute in Nagaland–-a full-fledged degree course. People from various backgrounds can attend and explore their talents; an institute where the exchange of ideas and Knowledge can grow with a different language of storytelling through art. Concerned about the obsession of youths for government jobs and also at the unemployment in the state, Buchemhu said institutes can create job opportunities and self-employment. Having sustained for more than a decade as a sculptor, he plans to collaborate with institutions on projects ‘so that institutions and artist residency in our state can be structured where we can exchange and learn different cultures through art.’