Imagine an art installation of a humpback whale made from scrap metal and the dried bark of a Nilgiri tree. Or from the bark of eucalyptus. Fascinating, right? These and many more have been designed and created from scratch, with help from volunteers, by Dibyush Jena. This youngster, along with two other friends, had shot to fame for creating murals in several college events when he was a student himself! Especially at events like Xavier Institute of Management's (XIMB) Xpressions. He also worked for Bakul Foundation and art and music festivals.
He shifted base to New Delhi briefly, but was back in Odisha in 2015. That's when the self-taught artist started diversifying further and going digital. Today he works at QSL as a Senior Graphic Designer and he takes us through his artistic journey. In the past, Dibyush applied to all the festivals and some of the first large-scale festivals his installations featured in were the Echoes of The Earth Music Festival and the India Surf Festival.
"For the latter, we had no budget and just 40 hours of time. That's when my engineering skills came to use. I collected scrap like twigs, bolts and bamboo from every other artist with the help of ten volunteers and set up The Orifice," says the 27-year-old. He describes the installation as a circular one which seems like a portal with a halo of twigs all around it. And guess the budget for it, he asks us. "Rs 64," he says with a flourish. And this installation was such a hit that representatives from Wildgrass Restaurant in Puri purchased it for Rs 10,000. This was an important milestone in the life of this Rourkela-born youngster because it was then that he realised that he is capable of making installations as well. It was a momentous moment.
Since then, the alumnus of Central Institute of Plastics Engineering and Technology, Bhubaneswar, has participated in many festivals like Public Arts of Gopalpur (PAGo) and more. Last year, he worked with Detour Odisha, Kalabhoomi Odisha Crafts Museum and has illustrated storybooks for children as well. "My forte is doing large scale murals and I enjoy doing them because they are in the public and everybody gets to see them. In a way, everybody is a part of it," he explains. He has one at Via Milano in Bengaluru, Puri Homestays and more. And is raring to go for more.
More of his work
For more on him, check out instagram.com/yantrapurush
