Sonal Ambani organised an art gallery Samara in Ahmedabad on Friday, March 4, 2022 where she showcased her new sculpture ‘Riderless World’.
The theme of this new sculpture was kept in the wake of all the people we lost due to Covid 19. While we are anxious to return to some notion of normalcy, we must take pause and look back at what became of a world characterised by its shrinking borders and a global community. We are, as a civilization, dazed and staggered. There seems to be no one holding the reins. A world torn asunder is memorialized through ‘Riderless World’.
While explaining her sculpture, Sonal said, “We have lost over 5 million people over covid and people really didn’t get to say goodbye sometimes and it’s really sad. so what we have done to pay homage to this is created this broken horse of bronze to signify that the world will ever be the same again.”
The sculpture features a bronze horse with its tail and a part of its abdomen broken apart and placed upon marble platforms, representing the state of the world and lamenting all that we have irretrievably lost. The cavity left in the abdomen by the broken piece is filled with flowers that acknowledge all that is missing and urge us to persevere with our efforts to patch the world back together. Behind the horse, the names of people from over 150 countries who have lost their lives to the pandemic, are projected on a wall as a way to honour and memorialise them. Their names slowly scroll on the wall.
According to the artists, ‘Riderless World’ works as an interactive experience that requires the participation of the viewers. In a noble gesture, Sonal also provided viewers with the option of memorialising loved ones they have lost to Covid. She added names of people lost due to covid to pay a send-off that they deserve. They can add the name by visiting www.riderlessworld.com and filling up the form with details about their loved ones.
