Anwar Talukdar On Winning The Sculpture Category of the Signature Art Prize 2015

It's no mean feat to create an huge sculpture from something as fragile as cocktail sticks, so it may come as no surprise that self proclaimed builder - Anwar Talukdar - scooped up the Signature Art Prize for the sculpture category with his piece 'Process #1'. His beautiful sculpture showcases his logic, talent and creativity, and overall patience, to create such an original signature piece.

Here we find out more about what goes into Anwar's process and his thoughts on winning this year's Signature Art Prize...

How does it feel to have won the Signature Art Prize for your category? It’s an incredible feeling I have to say, one that’s not easy to describe, but if I had to, I’d say it’s a mix of surprise, wonder, gratitude, shock and disbelief all rolled into one mutable feeling x 10! Especially as I felt there were already strong contenders within my category, winning was the last thing on my mind, I was already thrilled to be a finalist, but yes, winning is fantastic!

How do you feel the prize benefits up and coming artists? I believe, without question, that this prize - and others like it, is incredibly vital as a platform for emerging artists to showcase their work to a wider audience, it acknowledges and gives recognition to the individual and to the work, that would otherwise go unnoticed, it can provide an important stepping stone to help further the artists career.

Why did you pick your entry piece? How do you feel it best showcases your abilities? I guess you might say I’m a builder, and I build in two ways, one that follows rules or simple logic, while the other more informal and organic that can just occur without rigid systems to guide it. Both follow the very basic premise of repetition; repeating something over and over until something other begins to emerge within the work; I felt that ‘Process #1’ is a perfect demonstration of this.

Process #1 By Anwar Talukdar

Cocktail Sticks

£3,000.00

How would you describe your signature style? The way in which I build results in something that I would describe as having a certain visual delicacy that is just there, but also very present within the space, something that expresses strength as well as fragility, something that is both there and yet not; I guess it is the border at which these two conditions that exist within the work, this momentary or ephemeral state, that I would best describe as being my signature style.

What’s your process when you go about creating your work? Whilst research invariably starts the work, I allow the work to gain its own momentum during its development, incorporating every action whether intended or not into the whole making process; it is important to give myself certain guide lines to work within - so that the work isn’t merely the result of a set of random occurrences, while at the same time remaining flexible enough to allow for chance or mistakes to occur that can push the work in a direction not intended or imagined, or even allowing the mistakes to become the work themselves - it is important not to push for these to happen, if they do, fine, if not, then this is also fine. It is also important to remain fluid, not only in the way I think, but also the way in which I produce work.

What are your favourite materials to work with? I choose materials for the matter themselves, and work only with these without altering their structural integrity, that is to say, when I choose to work with a particular material, it is important that you see that material without embellishment, to do otherwise would create a visual disturbance that I find disturbing, or if I do bring two - or more, materials together, then it must be done so where they compliment each other without overshadowing. Wood an metal are my material of choice, but I guess it would be fair to say that I also choose materials that are convenient, and by that I mean materials that are easy to manipulate in order to build.

What do you plan to do now? Precisely what I am currently doing! I’m currently working on several pieces of work - three that are on-going, so now I have more time to spare, perhaps push for some resolution in at least one of the pieces.

Anwar's award-winning sculpture will be on show at the Signature Art Prize exhibition from 30th March - 18th April.

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