“Ever wondered what happens to obsolete walkmans and out-of date video tapes? To blunt saw blades and to dead cell phones. To ancient floppy discs and fused light bulbs? What happens to what we generally call ‘scrap’? Just because they have out-lived their use, do they deserve to be forgotten away in attics, thrown into bins? Or, just piled up in one corner of a scrap yard?” – Haribaabu Naatesam
Using mostly electronic waste (e-waste) from gadgets and gizmos like motherboards, floppy discs, CD drivers, cellphones, CDs, etc, artist Haribaabu Naatesam reassembles them together to create incredible works of art. Aiming to liberate waste from its lowly condemned position, Naatesam breathes new life into junk pieces turning them into everything from birds and crabs to shoes and transportation.
“The philosophy of my art is to create awareness of reusing e-waste,” he tells us. “It is design in art form or vice versa. It is not art for art’s sake. My realization through exhibitions is that people get engaged to my art. They try and discover the objects or pieces that I have used in it. My art is for common people. It is understood by all. For example, computer engineers could relate to it by identifying things in my artwork which he comes across in his daily life. Similarly, a kid gets engaged by the toys used in my art. A waiter gets attracted by the toothpicks, stirrer, etc. Girls identify hair clips, pins and other objects in my art. I, as an artist, provoke, trigger, and remind people of their memories. I make my audience locate and look at things in a new perspective.”
