On the first day of the 2023 Ladakh Marathon expo, as one walked down the road leading to the NDS Stadium, a series of sculptures by the side of the road leading to Choglamsar, fascinated.

Made of metal parts, the idiom at work seemed to communicate a mix of form, anatomy and innards, and at least in the case of a sculpture or two, felt quite kinetic; like energy unleashed. Ladakh’s barren cold desert landscape, against which one perceived the art forms, added to the bare bones, skeletal broodiness of scrap metal. Neither an artist in the real sense of the word nor a trained art critic, I nevertheless felt sufficiently impressed to try finding out who created these works of art. As chance would have it, freelance journalist’s habit of seeking out affordable eateries landed him at a café opposite the sculpture of two black-necked cranes and a restaurant named after the birds, near Leh’s post office. The materials used to make the birds appeared similar to what I had seen near the stadium. Could there be a connection? A case of same or similar hands at work perhaps? The best place to ask seemed the Black-Necked Crane Restaurant. It’s manager, Tundup promised to help. He got back with the name and phone number of Chemat Dorjey. By then, I had also found an old interview with Chemat published by Reach Ladakh. The next day, we met.

Hailing from Sakti village and talented at painting, Chemat decided to study art. He did his Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) from Jammu and later, his MFA from Varanasi. Initially given to painting, he specialized in sculpture after being inspired by the work of one of his teachers. At Leh’s Onpo House, a heritage building (it was once the seat of royal astrologers) now restored and used as an art gallery and venue for discussions on art, Chemat explained the local art scene. Ladakh may be small. But its imagination is colourful. Thanks to its traditional art forms like thangka, Ladakhi society has curiosity and appreciation for art. That nature (empathy for creative work) is the foundation on which, later styles of art have got layered. Although contemporary art struggles to find acceptance, people turn up to see exhibitions of such work all the same. Indeed, when asked if choosing art for a career had been a problem (an unpopular decision) in Ladakh, Chemat said that hadn’t been the case. At the same time, studying art outside had taught him to look differently – in more perspectives than just the traditional – at subjects that engaged his interest. 

There is a community of around 20-30 artists scattered in and around Leh, Chemat said. Most of them have no other avenue of livelihood. They survive on original work and commissioned pieces. The rise of local businesses, particularly hotels, has helped in securing commissions. In some cases, art projects have come from monasteries. However, in the context of steadying their ship destined to sail the choppy waters of creativity, the artistic community wishes for more support from government. Besides art projects the government could give, a simple change that could help stabilize the fluctuating economic fortunes most artists are subjected to, would be to have positions for artists in schools, colleges and other such institutions. It would provide employment. That is awaited, Chemat said.

In the meantime, private patrons in Ladakh commissioned art work or as happened in the case of those black-necked cranes near the post office, the sculptor pitched an idea to government and the government decided to back it. Migratory and vulnerable, black-necked cranes have visited Ladakh for long. It’s the union territory’s ` state bird’ (previously it used to be the state bird of the erstwhile Jammu & Kashmir state). They would be found in the Changthang region of Ladakh. It is believed that a pair of black-necked cranes bond for life. Over the years, the number of visiting pairs have reduced and people from Hanle (which falls in the area where the birds arrive) told Chemat that the growing noise of vehicles, including motorcycles, had contributed to the problem. That was how the sculptor conceived the idea of a pair of black-necked cranes made from scrap metal (vehicle parts). The main inspiration for the art work is drawn from the courtship dance / display of the birds. According to Chemat the sculpture was unveiled in 2019. In a related note, Chemat observed: “ In a way this sculpture is an embodiment of the artist’s vision towards awareness of the threats that rare and migratory birds like the black-necked crane face in their natural habitat among others. Beyond the inspiration of beauty and aesthetics, this sculpture is also a criticism of the change in the ecology of the region.’’

While the sculpture of two birds made of scrap metal sourced from vehicle parts bridged the two main elements of the work (vulnerable birds and the problem of traffic), Chemut provided the sculpture more local roots by bringing in the spindle as the sculpture’s base. Central to local textiles and dresses like the Ladakhi koncha which keep people warm, the spindle, as an emblem of how humans survive in Ladakh, is a recurrent motif in Chemat’s work. It is the heart of one of Chemat’s installations too, now on view at Onpo House.

In April 2023, Ladakh hosted the Youth-20 (Y-20) summit under the auspices of G-20, of which India had become president. In the run up to the Y-20 meeting, there was a flurry of beautification projects in Leh. According to Chemat, about a month before the Y-20 meeting he was sounded out by the local administration about a proposed art project. That was the genesis of the sculptures that came up just outside the NDS Stadium, which in September 2023 served as venue for the Ladakh Marathon expo. Realizing that the time provided was very limited, he recommended a symposium attended by invited artists – five from Ladakh and ten from elsewhere in India. Based yet again on scrap art, the symposium was called: 1st Ladakh National Scrap Art Symposium. It was anchored by the union territory’s administration and its housing and urban development department. The local administration leased space near Shanti Stupa in Leh for the artists to fashion scrap metal into creative art forms. The finished sculptures were set up adjacent to the NDS Stadium. Months later freelance journalist headed to a marathon expo would be sufficiently intrigued by the sculptures to find out who made it. But therein lay another tale.

While the sculptures were installed and the Y-20 meeting was held, a proper explanation of the works of art along with credit to its creators, was still pending as of early September 2023. Standing before the sculptures, one couldn’t know the names of the artists involved because their names hadn’t been displayed. The underlying theme (what the sculptures signified) also stayed silent pending articulation and display. “ The formal unveiling is yet to happen,’’ Chemat said. He sent me a digital presentation on the earlier mentioned symposium, which contained the names of the participating artists. They were, besides Chemat; Parmar R. Kumar, Lodoe Gyaltsen, Madhab Das, Saurab Singh, Vinit Kumar, Vivek Das, Arun Bhandari, Dheeraj Kumar, Anupam Patel, Virender Singh, Tsering Gurmet, Stanzin Tsepel, Stanzin Samphel and Urgain Zawa. They made that row of intriguing metal sculptures. Unfortunately, even as anyone going to the NDS Stadium would have noticed the art work, it didn’t grace the actual course of the Ladakh Marathon. The course was towards Choglamsar while the sculptures were towards the side of Leh town.

Meanwhile, artists in Ladakh have become more versatile. Ladakh has distinct seasons with palpable impact on landscape and human existence and that has begun influencing artistic expression. Of late in winter, Ladakhi artists have worked with ice and snow. Within this approach, artists in Leh use ice, of which they have plenty in winter. In Kargil, the play is with snow; there is strong snowfall that side. Besides this, Ladakhi artists have also begun using the vast space and landscape of Ladakh as inspiration for outdoor installations.

(The author, Shyam G Menon, is a freelance journalist based in Mumbai.)