Mahesh Vishwakarma

Mahesh Vishwakarma, based in Kolkata, completed his BFA (2020) and MFA (2022) in sculpture from Rabindra Bharati University. Hailing from Dhanbad, the coal capital of India, Mahesh’s work draws from and responds to his hometown both in terms of form and material. His works relate the struggle of labourers working in the coal mines as a class and community, pointing to their psychological and material aspirations. He uses coal as a metaphor that evolves beyond its material value, as a framing reference for the history of this struggle – a process that places the material in contrast with the hierarchic and feudal sense of the non-perishable.