Born in a traditional blacksmith family, Narottam took to smelting to molding and welding of iron as a natural process. A drop out from school after attending it just for a year, he became an apprentice to his father Raghunathbhai and learnt some of the finer nuances under his able guidance till he was 32. He was already a father of two but the wife Purnima, recognizing his unfulfilled creative urge to grow as an artist than just a blacksmith, took the responsibility of the household by earning the basic requirement as an art teacher and encouraged him to join the M.S. University, Baroda. He graduated in Architecture but his inherent passion for molding iron could not be suppressed. In a dual process of selecting the discarded iron scraps of varied shapes and then fashioning them by welding it to give an artistic shape or smelting the scrap to give a fresh form, the sculptor in him creates massive bull of two tons to rhino of three tons; they both are installed at prestigious locations in Ahmedabad and Baroda respectively. All his works, more than 400 in number, irrespective of their volume and weight, require at least 12-20 welding and with the tenacity of the metal itself he works without using a welding glass, with just indigenous instruments.
Iron scrap often looses its metallic heaviness in the hands of the artist, when he opts to depict the emancipation of spirit as the best represented in the graceful flight of a ballet dancer. The artist in Narottam makes even the metal free from its own character and allows it to experience the freedom or the joy of weightlessness.
~ Prakriti Kashyap |
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