Selma Feriani Gallery in collaboration with Experimenter proudly presents ʻOf Cages, Trappings & Painʼ; Adip Duttaʼs second solo show in London following last yearʼs outstanding outdoors installation entitled Nestled at Frieze Sculpture Park. Through his new body of work Dutta continues to explore banal objects with only functional and mundane applications using diverse material.

In ʻOf Cages, Trappings & Painʼ Dutta contemplates the meaning of a cage, a trap and the restrictions they involve including feelings of restraint and pain. As you enter the gallery space you are immediately confronted with a large sculptural work made of fibreglass entitled ʻIn Tranquillityʼ. Its shadow emerges on the surrounding walls in the form of a structure resembling a ribcage, a skeletal form or a carcass, but yet remains essentially a cage. The structure has been made to appear like the remains of a creature once again touching upon the terrible implications of this magnificent object. ʻIn Tranquillityʼ... has a deliberately built ambiguity; the structure looks like a cage but both ends are open, it has an organic form yet bears artificiality and last but not least the work is entirely hand crafted and it is made to appear like an industrially manufactured object.

In the same room a series of miniscule drawings will re-examine traps, piercing tools for catching fish, nets and other related instruments for shredding animal flesh for human consumption. These black and white drawings made of ink and brush, often stippled or banded as required, create a very tangible texture and recall botanical drawings of the 19th century – a trademark of Adip Dutta.

Through an inversion in the usage of industrial materials, skilled craftsmanship and refined practise, Dutta creates spectacular objects and drawings that re-examine our modern history of taste and endeavours the reversal of negative value judgement.

Adip Dutta (b.1970, Kolkata, India) graduated with an MA in Sculpture from The Faculty of Visual Arts, Rabindra Bharati University in Kolkata. Currently he is a member of Faculty of Visual Arts in the department of Sculpture, Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata. Dutta opened his debut solo at the Birla Academy of Art & Culture, Kolkata, India in 2001 followed by ʻInstallation in Sculptureʼ at Art Heritage, New Delhi, 2003, ʻThe Mould Confronting a Snakeʼ at Project88, Mumbai, 2006 and ʻI Have a Face but a Face of What I am Notʼ at Experimenter, Kolkata, 2011. Dutta frequently writes on contemporary Indian art for Art India; the art news magazine of India.

All images courtesy of Selma Feriani Gallery