Sudarshan Shetty’s practice unfolds through objects, movement, and time, shaped by a sustained inquisitiveness into how the world and its systems operate. We walk with the artist through the narrow streets of Chor Bazaar and into his Chembur studio, where found images, everyday objects, and carefully constructed forms reveal a way of thinking rooted in precise acts of looking and making.
Initially trained as a painter, Shetty later turned to sculpture and installation, developing a practice known for its enigmatic and often mechanised constructions. Bringing together everyday objects with skeletal forms and systems of movement, his work probes the relationship between the animate and the inanimate, permanence and decay. Process, duration, and labour are central—some works take so long to construct that the act of making itself becomes a form of performance.
In this BMW Artist Film, Sudarshan Shetty reflects on materials, mechanical exposure, and the unlikely juxtapositions that animate his practice.
Born in 1961 in Mangalore, India, Sudarshan Shetty currently lives and works in Mumbai.