As you enter the serene premises of Pepper House, one of the venues of the Biennale , the first thing that arrests your attention is the black and red figurines on the green lawn. The sculptures of human forms made of coir, metal and plywood, named Astatic Garden make you wonder what they represent. The deft hands behind the work belong to artist Praneet Soi , who tells us the stories that took shape as his work, in a quick chat."Visitors always ask me what my sculptures mean. I say they are open to interpretation and ask them to find their own meaning in my work. Often children come up with amazing interpretations," says the artist, who is now based in Amsterdam. His figures made in coir have their roots in the world of media and are inspired from various photographs that captured his attention. A woman falling off the Twin Towers in the 9/11 attack, an injured woman with a surgical mask after a bomb blast in London, a Palestinian shouting at an Iraqi guard... each of them have moving stories behind their creation. "I have been collecting these images for years. I make my friends pose in my studio and draw them. A few were picked for my installation here," he says.An artist who often studies workshops of various kinds, he felt quite intrigued when the organisers of the Biennale told him about the coir industry in Kerala. "I decided to incorporate coir into my work and started visiting coir factories in Alappuzha. The craftsmen there helped me materialise the ideas, despite quite a few practical difficulties I had in shaping them the way I visualised them."In the next two months, the artist is planning to explore the world of coir further by studying the various issues dogging the industry and the life of the people who make a living out of it. "The process through which I made the installations here and my final work, which will include video art, drawings and documentation of 'Left and Right of coir' will be presented in the Aspinwall House in March," the artist says, signing off.

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