To the average person, old toothpaste tubes belong in the dustbin. To an artist like Prithpal Singh Ladi, they are inspirational objects that can be transformed into something more meaningful. Sitting at his worktable, the artist scrapes moulds and paints them. Then he creates heads of a king and queen, an imp and an ogre, all from white clay.

Next he attaches the heads to the tubes that now become sprite like bodies and, bingo, Ladi has something special on his hands.

“I am always on the lookout for discarded objects. I love reinventing them, it feels like resurrecting Lazarus from the grave,” says the 54-year-old who is currently working at the Oberoi Art Camp, organised by Gallery Beyond.

There are other creatures inspired by fairy tales that emerge from his studio—little insects and hybrid beings, amphibians on a crutch play their role— while the human form, when it does put in an appearance, holds memories of the Greco-Roman Adonis of yore.

The last time Ladi picked something out of the bin it was a Harpic bottle that he transformed into two people balancing on a clothes iron. The result was a sculpture that sold for Rs 30 lakh on the Saffronart’s 2007 auction.

However, like others from his generation, Ladi does not like measuring art according to the price tag. “I was surprised when it sold at the auction since sculpture is more of a challenge to market,” laughs the artist, whose art is least affected by the economic meltdown. “Whether the market rises or falls my projects are planned far apart; I am not in a hurry to get somewhere and so I take my time. I also like to work on my own without anyone completing my work for me,” says the artist who took a sabbatical for five years and retreated to his ancestral home in Shillong.

... contd.