Today, a concern with the issue of what it really means to be human can be seen and perceived in contemporary art everywhere. Most of the younger artists in the new international exhibition, 2008 Carnegie International, have inherited a legacy, which seeks to produce the ephemeral, the modest rather than the monumental and momentary. One witnesses in their creations a real connection to the human condition, which is expressed with an economy of means, at once fragile and powerful rather than a discredited universal humanism.

Ranjani Shettar is one of the participating artists from India is into spotlight for her work. Born in 1977 in Bangalore, she lives and works there. Ranjani Shettar makes art, which functions within a broad dynamic of aesthetics and metaphysics. She attains this with a precisely tuned sense of the sacred and symbolic potential in both made and organic materials,

An introductory note states: “Her work draws inspiration from beliefs that are embedded in Indian culture as well as traditions. It entreats physical objects to be interlocutors with spiritual and intangible dimensions, which is a feature common to many religious and magical rites.

“Yet the substances this artist has employed are rarely precious or emotive. She often incorporates resin, mud, cotton, coconut fibers, plastic, twine, metal, terra-cotta and wax in her work. There is an acknowledged resonance in her art with the high-tech economic growth taking place in her home city (Bangalore), a leading force in the burgeoning IT and Internet sector.

Video interview with Ranjani Shettar, 2008 Carnegie International