JUGINDER LAMBA - SCULPTOR >WOOD >STONE >BRONZE >PROFILE

JUGINDER LAMBA

SCULPTOR

PROFILE
Juginder Lamba was born in Nairobi, Kenya in 1948. At the age of ten his family moved to India and then, four years later, to Britain. This amalgam of cultural influences was important, as was the diversity of physical landscapes that he encountered. His work focuses on universal themes and is an ongoing process of enquiry and discovery through which he strives for a deeper understanding of the laws of nature and the human condition.

His work has been exhibited and collected widely, both nationally and internationally. Noted exhibitions include the British Museum, London and the Bronx Museum, New York. He was awarded the Henry Moore Fellowship in sculpture at John Moores University, Liverpool in 1994. In 1996 he represented Britain at the Dak'art Biennale in Senegal. Currently he lives and works in Shropshire, UK.

Biography by Brendan Flynn,
Curator of Fine Art,
Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery

Juginder Lamba was born in Nairobi, Kenya in 1948. Perhaps, it was in these early years of his childhood that he acquired the African tradition of the materiality and the solidity of the earth. At the age of ten his family moved to India, but he took with him this attachment to the earth and soil and amalgamated it with the art, culture and ritual of the Hindu tradition with its ancient monuments and temple sculptures. The family emigrated to England in1962 and he had to adjust, once more, to an entirely new social and cultural environment. He sees this very much as a period of his artistic awakening, and he began to paint. Perhaps the roots of Lamba's art lie here, in the forms in these early paintings which were not to find full expression till much later. He graduated in Politics and Philosophy at Lancaster University in 1969 and soon after began to sculpt in wood, a medium in which he could fuse and reconcile the diversity of cultural influences and the physical locations and landscapes of his youth.

I first encountered Juginder Lamba's work in 1989, at Walsall Art Gallery. When I walked into a quiet white room full of his work I was immediately captivated. Confronting me was a work called Acrobats, a life-size prone male figure supporting a vertical female figure who rose at right angles to him. With perfect poise and equilibrium, her weight was transmitted through his arms into his shoulders. Close by were other works - dark bird forms in Bronze Age bog oak, faintly sinister, emergent beings brought to life by the subtlest paring and polishing. In common with the human figures, they seemed to have a radiant energy - an elemental, primordial quality. They recalled the "personages" of Paul Nash, half formed natural entities lying dormant just below the surface of the conscious mind. In Resurrection, four clustered figures are fused into one dynamic arc, its surface dark as polished ebony. It is hard to distinguish where nature has stopped and the artist has begun, recognising and revealing a pre-existing power in the found object. In this sense the peat bog is a teeming habitat, a layered matrix of time, growth, death and memory - the central themes of Lamba's work. There is a strong surrealist element in these and the later Pod series. Forest Flower, with its blade like forms echoes the fossilised dream-forests of Max Ernst.

There is also a totemic quality, especially in the solitary upright and recumbent stone figures. The smooth, rounded, heavy stone limbs of Lady of Chambray carved from pale, Maltese limestone, has an archaic quality akin to the stone of terracotta idols of the Balearic Islands and Eastern Mediterranean. The human figure is represented in archetypal terms, purged of extraneous detail and transcending any single cultural or stylistic framework. In stargazer, the life-size cherry wood figure stands serene , her feet firmly planted on the ground, her hands joined as she turns her face towards the stars. She represents the redeeming curiosity and dignity of humankind confronted by the immensity of the universe. In Enigma, the gaze is turned inwards, the figure opening itself to reveal its interior - a metaphor for both the inner self and the creative journey of the artist engaged in the intense and often painful act of self examination and expression.

A great deal is said in the art world about "truth to material" the artist working with the inherent qualities of stone, wood and metal - but in Lamba's work I saw it demonstrated in a new way. Here was a sculptor whose understanding of the material extended not just to its physical qualities but beyond into a more intuitive realm where the inner spirit of the piece was realised. He makes particular use of salvaged timber which comes to him already marked by its history - oak beams from old sailing ships and barns with socket holes and iron bolts, baulks of greenheart from old lock gates. Relics from a bygone industrial and agrarian age are incorporated in the works and take on a new meaning, giving the work an archaeological and historical resonance. The form and history of the timber is the starting point for his dialogue with the material. The Cry evolved in this way, with its deep socket transfixed with a wooden peg from its previous life. It was part of an old warehouse in Lancaster built from slave ships. For the artist, the wood seemed to embody the suffering of the nameless thousands who had been victims of the trade.

The rich amalgam of cultural influences at large in his work are important but they do not define his approach. Rather, they are paths towards more universal mythologies and notions of the human condition. One of the main strengths of his work is that it addresses fundamental themes in a figurative idiom without becoming trite or sentimental. That is what makes it so compelling; the standing figure gazing upwards, the embracing lovers, the reclined figure, the mother and child, and the plant form bursting with life are all archetypes, embedded deep in the collective consciousness. The story of Icarus has been a recurrent theme in his work, representing for him the yearning of the immortal spirit to return to the infinite while caged in the mortal body. In Lifetrap, a more literal and narrative approach is adopted. Here, the scrambling, doomed figures poised on the ladder are like the damned in a medieval Last Judgement. Like Icarus, they symbolise the fate of humanity in the unequal struggle between flesh and spirit.

In the Pod series, the specificity of human relationships is transcended and the archetype becomes purer. It is based on the fundamental idea of the seedpod as the cradle of life. The Pod is an icon of power. At the same time it is a vessel, a womb, a coracle - rich in metaphysical associations - caught in a moment of transition. It conveys a sense of movement, as if on a journey, through time - back to the beginning. In Local Marriage, the flower head is sexualised and predatory, like a carnivorous plant, inviting the eye and the hand but retaining an air of danger. Many of these organic forms unite the make and female principles recalling the life affirming harmony of Shiva and Shakti - the cycle of creation and destruction reflected in Tantric philosophy.

Lamba's works allow us to see familiar things more intensely and to reflect upon our experience of life though a clear and powerful visual language. It is an ongoing process of enquiry and discovery through which he strives for a deeper understanding of himself, the laws of nature, and the human condition.

CURRICULUM VITAE

ALL WORKS

Heart Of The Matter 2
Cotswold limestone and bog oak | 28x64x17cm

Heart Of The Matter 2
Cotswold Limestone & Bog Oak | 28x64x17cm

Moondance
Maltese Limestone & Bog Oak | 30x23x20cm

Abraxus
Alabaster | 23x33x14cm

Heart Of The Matter
Maltese Limestone & Bog Oak | 29x45x27cm

Temple 2
Alabaster | 37x24x23cm

Mother and Child 3
Cornish Serpentine| 13x18x11cm

Temple 2
Alabaster | 37x24x23cm

Woman In Bath
Maltese limestone | 12x34x15cm

Family
Alabaster | 36x32x22cm

Mother and Child 3
Cornish Serpentine| 13x18x11cm

Mother and Child
Maltese Marble | 25x15x13cm

Embracing Lovers
Alabaster | 18x35x20cm

Reclining Woman
Maltese Marble| 19x8x9cm | 2008

Mermaid and Me
Alabaster | 35x18x15cm

Sleeping Woman
Gozo Marble | 14x23x20cm

Mermaid and Me
Alabaster | 35x18x15cm

Two Figures
Alabaster | 28cmx38x25cm

Two Figures
Alabaster | 28x38x25cm

Woman With Cat
Gozo Marble(zebugge)|8x23x17cm

Andromeda
Maltese Limestone | 35x25x20cm

Mother and Child 4
Alabaster | 43x23x16cm

Andromeda
Maltese Limestone | 35x25x20cm

Lady Of Chambray
Maltese Stone | 25x28x22cm

Lady Of Chambray
Maltese Stone | 25x 28cm x 22cm

Fusion
Soapstone | 12x35x17cm

Reclining Woman
Maltese Limestone| 18x33x18cm

Lady Of Santa Petru
Maltese Limestone | 25x18x15cm

Mother and Child 5
Soapstone | 38x25x22cm

Lady Of Santa Petru
Maltese Limestone | 25x18x15cm

Lovers
Maltese Limestone

Lady Of Gharb
Maltese Limestone | 20x42x24cm

Love Supreme
Maltese Limestone | 48x43x10cm

Birth
Bronze | 75cm x 115cm x 40cm

The Word Killeth
bronze | 26cm x 34cm x 40cm

The Spirit Lifteth
bronze | 79cm x 35cm x 39cm

Exodus
bronze | 26x26x50 cm |2024

Gestation
bronze | 48cm x 64cm x 44cm

Dreamweaver
bronze | 30cm x 45cm x 27cm

Sitting Woman
bronze | 16cm x 29cm x 14cm

Dreamweaver
bronze | 30cm x 45cm x 27cm

Sitting Woman
bronze | 16cm x 29cm x 14cm

Parvati 1
bronze | 29cm x 48cm x 30cm

Parvati 2
bronze | 28cm x 56cm x 38cm

Sleeping Woman
bronze | 15cm x 39cm x 20cm

Dancer 2
bronze | 120cm x 34cm x 36cm

Sleeping Woman
bronze | 15cm x 39cm x 20cm

Dancer 4
bronze | 37cm x 08cm x 07cm

Stargazer 4
bronze | 40cm x 147cm x 35cm

Dancer 4
bronze | 37cm x 08cm x 07cm

Flying Woman
bronze | 30cm x 100cm x 14cm

Dancer
bronze | 77cm x 36cm x 28cm

The Cry
bronze | 48cm x 30cm x 15cm

Mother and Child 2
bronze | 45cm x 30cm x 18cm

Enigma
bronze | 122cm x 33cm x 33cm

Sitting Man
bronze | 17cm x 10cm x 11cm

Mother and Child
bronze | 48cm x 24cm x 23cm

Reclining Figure
bronze | 14cm x 31cm x 15cm

Icarus
bronze | 102cm x 40cm x 30cm

Reclining Figure
bronze | 14cm x 31cm x 15cm

Bird
bronze | 34cm x 17cm x 15cm

Icarus
bronze | 102cm x 40cm x 30cm

Star Gazer 3
bronze | 52cm x 15cm x 15cm

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