There are a significant amount of beauties in our surroundings. As we look around us, things will appear in front of us and mesmerise us. We are proceeding into modernisation and there are very few artists who believe that they owe something to nature as they depict our surroundings in their variety of artforms.
One of the rare and finest artists is Sonal Ambani. Her passion and professional career both are aligned with ‘sculpture’. Sonal Ambani has been a sculptor for thirty years, working in a variety of media and styles. Her work attempts to strike a delicate balance between these two very different ecosystems by bridging the gap between nature and urbanisation.
This time, Sonal is coming up with some extraordinary and deeply attached theme called ‘We dream under the same sky’. We Dream Under the Same Sky is both a contemporary sculpture and a mystery. The exquisitely made clocks atop the pillars, which represent the birthdates of legendary geniuses from all around the world, contain a code that unlocks this mystery.
Sonal Ambani’s sculpture to be showcased at Dubai’s Largest Art Gallery – ‘Laila Heller Gallery’ on Monday February 6th 2023 at 5.30 pm. The venue is DIFC Sculpture Park Under the Gate Building, Dubai, UAE.
The sculpture challenges viewers to examine the watches and try to identify the names of the matching visionaries. As an illustration, the hour hand is on 2 and the minute hand is on 24 because Steve Jobs was born on February 24. As a result, the time displayed on the sculpture is 2:24. Similar to how Marie Curie’s clock reads 11:07 and Nelson Mandela’s clock reads 7:18 (both men were born on July 18), (Birthdate Nov 7th).
Sonal creates her sculptures with the goal of challenging the audience to reflect on their own life experiences and come up with their own meaning. She is of the opinion that art must strike a balance between external beauty and inside reflection. Her father’s own art gallery in New York, where she had the chance to engage intimately with a variety of creative people, had a significant impact on her as well.
Her sculptures draw inspiration from nature and juxtapose parts of contemporary life with these themes to create thought-provoking narratives for the viewer. Due to the nature of her primary material of production, stainless steel combined with bronze or fibre, the visual aspects help with both this storytelling and the development of distinctive and imposing sculptures that have a different visual effect in every setting in which they are put.
“The internal balance that must be attained through clarity of mind is a characteristic that I seek to embody in all my works. I value using tactile and durable materials to contrast the tender delicacies of the natural world. It is the omnipotent intermingling of these diverse ecosystems that inspires me to craft my sculptures,” says Sonal Ambani.
She founded and presided over the inaugural meeting of FICCI-FLO Ahmedabad in 2010, which was established alongside Narendra Modi (the current Prime Minister of India, who at the time was the Chief Minister of Gujarat). She has a PhD in business management and a US patent entitled “System and method for providing financial services to adolescents and teenagers.” She also has an impressive educational history.
Her notable awards and recognition are The Times of India Women Power Award for Art and Sculpture (2019), The Women of Excellence Award from FICCI – FLO (2018), Pfeffer Peace Award (2011), Pride of Gujarat- Maharashtra Award (2011) and Tej Gyan Foundation (2011).
Also Read: Veteran Singer Vani Jairam Dies At 78
