Bengaluru: What has caught the fancy of Bengalureans during this year’s Republic Day flower show is wood sculpting. Thick barks of fallen 250-year-old mango and eucalyptus trees, planted by Tipu Sultan and Hyder Ali, have been carved into Buddha emerging from a kotus, peacock, dolphins, buffaloes wading in water and more.
Artists from the city and across the country had been called in to create these masterpieces within 15 days, the final installations of which were inaugurated on Saturday.
John Devaraj and Malaika were two of the sculptors who created the “Tree of Life” from a 250-year-old African origin eucalyptus tree called 'baobab', planted by Tipu Sultan.
The entire bark has been chipped away to fit in 14 animals and a representation of the female form.
“The baobab tree has softwood on the inside and hardwood on the outside. Tribals used to live in it 600 years ago. I wanted to showcase the harmony and balance in nature, among all species, unlike humans, who are the only ones to have conflict in the name of caste, religion, etc," Devaraj said, taking visitors around the bark turned upside down.
Carved in it were slender loris, dodo, cobra, gharial, a black buck having a conversation with a tiger cub, a polar bear and a leopard sharing a fish, bear, pelican, elephant, anteater and the closest ancestor to the human species, Bonobo.
"Homage to Mammoth", an installation of the extinct genus Mammuthus carved into it, was made from a 255-year-old mango tree, also planted by Tipu Sultan in Lalbagh. "Buddha bloomed from a Lotus" was carved by another group of sculptors from a 250-year-old eucalyptus Tree
Madhan Kumar N., an artists from Chitra Kala Parishath who worked on several installations, said, “We have all been working for 15 days from 12 noon till 2 am to make this happen. These trees had fallen during heavy rains. Instead of letting these pieces of wood being sold, we decided to carve and preserve them using natural oils."
