Balls of Steel

That 'old ball and chain' steals your freedom, one might think. But the gravity-defying installation at Palladium, Mumbai, begs a rethink. Titled Old Love, the corroded 15-ft sphere complete with rusted chain links is anchored to the ground by a much smaller iron sphere that could fit cosily into a cupped palm.

"I was considering marriage, and realised that sometimes long-term relationships that seem as if they hold you back actually give you stability, security and freedom," explains the idea-obsessed Lekha. The giant ball of rust, which looks like it will crush you should it fall, turns out to be specially synthesized polymer plastic. The approximately 50 litres of helium that keep it afloat have a weight-bearing capacity of 45 kilos."We've kept the weight about 10 kilos below its total capacity," says Lekha, also an actor in southern cinema.

"It's exhilarating, when the things you see in your head become real and other people can see it too," says Lekha, who with Old Love takes inflatables to a much larger scale than her partially lit floating moon phases at the Kochi Biennial in November last year.

It was spotting the rust-like surface finish—the definitive element in this artwork—on what she mistook for massive iron slabs at the Asian Paints stall during the India Art Fair in Delhi that set her mind awhirl. Old Love is another expression of the theme 'that which is, is not', which she has been exploring since she designed—a chair that looked uncomfortable and yet was not—as part of a course in Bad Design at NID. Old Love, which took to the air with Asian Paints' launch of the 'Royale Play Artist Circle', an attempt to help artists create art in public spaces, is part of the Art at Palladium initiative.

While the chairs on display—Pink Sinks, Dot and Drop—may be functional design, Old Love she says is pure art. "It's meant to overwhelm, inspire, provoke–but that's about it."

"I've been an artist since I was a child, making stuff with atta, as my mum made chappatis. I've been quietly creating art, while dancing around trees in Tamil films. Now I'm doing it a little less quietly," she adds.

She was "really excited about making things fly". But to do that she needed a material that could take a good deal of weight and look realistic whilst being flexible enough to inflate and deflate, find unadulterated helium, and create a primer that would let the paint glide smoothly onto the balloon, without burning a hole in it. "As with all things, you have to prototype until you are happy. We burnt through six balloons," reveals Lekha.

Resin, silicon, latex—the teenager with a material fetish, who experimented with flammable resin in her bedroom sans gloves or other protective gear, is not risk-averse. "Once I have an idea, I'm like a dog with a bone. I'll work at it till it's done. I take risks all the time," she shares. She's conscious that it's her income from acting that allows her to fund her art, a luxury that not many artists have.

"I've used that luxury to push the envelope," says the founder of Ajji-The Odd Product Company. While she thinks it's an advantage that "there's not that many people doing really out-there work", it bothers her that "good design and India are not synonymous, in terms of product design".

Despite her success as an actor, she bears no airs of entitlement. We'd curious about how she can be "a full-time actor, a full-time artist and run her own business" while most people have trouble finding balance, with one full-time job. It turns out, the "inadvertent entrepreneur", as she describes herself, has come to terms with the way "different things take priorities at different times".

What does she regard as her best work? "Work I haven't done yet!" is her prompt response. And as she intends to take her art "to a global stage", we're bound to see more thought-provoking design.