Prakash Bhandari
JAIPUR: Where the Indian hockey team failed, a sculptor from Pink City has succeeded. Sculptor Ankit Patel’s creation Reaching Out is currently being exhibited at Beijing’s Olympic fine art exhibition.
The sculpture exhibition begins on Monday. The Olympic art exhibition is a jamboree of sports-related art that has attracted artists from 80 countries. It showcases more than 11 items among which is the creation of the Pink City artist’s creation.
This seven-and-a-half feet statue of a father and son playing with a ball, with the son reaching out and stretching beyond the limit of his stature, symbolize the spirit of sport. The second item selected for the exhibition is Team Work. This piece of art speaks of the desire to win.
Ankit is in Beijing with his wife Manisha and two of his art d’ objects are on display along with the Bengal Brigade — comprising Ashish Ghosh, Aloke Paul, Sudipta Kundu, Amar Das and Babita Das.
“We are delighted to select Ankit Patel’s inspiring work for the Olympic art exhibition,” says the letter which he received in June from Fengi Jiao, the commissioner of Olympic fine arts international at Beijing.
Patel, who teaches at Rajasthan School of Arts, hails from Gujarat and the inspiration to create something related to sport came from acrobatic sports that he used to see as a child in his village Motavaarcha, near Surat in Gujarat.
“When our hockey team failed to qualify, I was naturally disappointed as it is our national games. I thought we have to look for talent in the rural areas and I did a number of sports-related objects.
The inspiration came from acrobatics that were performed in village melas. Our rural sports are used to local equipment which is easily available at no great expense,” he said.
