Untitled: (Rusting)

Maksud Ali Mondal

Santiniketan, India

Nature has always been an inspiration for me. What fascinates me about it is
how the earth, in its various forms -- landscapes, seasons, living and lifeless beings
- change continuously. How living beings grow, develop, die and their bodies
return to the earth, springing new life back again.

My work aspires to reflect such changes, as they often change themselves,
embracing the impact of nature in them. I rarely protect them from any ‘damage’
like fungal growth or fading or decay with inorganic chemicals.

Materials like decomposing objects, rust, stone, wood, soil, iron, zinc, and mud
- anything that is prone to decay - has repeatedly appeared in my work,
which is process based.

I collect objects abandoned in nature, preserve them in my studio,
document them and respond to those in different ways.

The impressions of rusting objects I take and keep in water for some time keep changing.
This body of works is often ephemeral and no state is their final state.

Eventually, after a long time, decaying objects that I save turn into dust.

Sometimes I use them as pigments to create paintings; they give me a sense of rebirth.
Like all the decaying elements in nature, they leave but at the same time remain,
no matter how little, transforming into other chemical compositions
and becoming a part of nature once again.