There is a sense of past in the room. A piece of stone stands with 'Temporarily removed for Restoration' inscribed on it, in a museum showcase. In another, there are small metallic tablets with engravings and flickering incandescent bulbs posing as fire, which depict the tablets as branding tools. A raised wooden platform holds four temple pillar pedestals joined from the base. At Nature Morte gallery in Gurgaon, which is hosting Skoda Prize finalist LN Tallur's latest body of works in the art show titled, Password, the artwork reconstruct elements from late 19th century applied and decorative works from Dr Bhau Daji Lad Museum, one of Mumbai's oldest museums. These works were specially created for the museum. As Tallur will have it, these are not just artefacts and collections. 'For me, they create a fifth dimension, that is an addition to the accepted conventional ones', he says.

With six installations, Password comprises an array of classical Indian sculptures that have been reconstructed to be used in his own works. The artwork speak of cross-cultural exchange and social themes. The title, in addition, has been taken from a work of same name from the collection that comprises metallic tablets, and works as a clue for the viewers to decode their own answers to these passwords or works. Tallur explains, 'Human branding is a process where a mark is burnt onto the skin of a living person, with the intention that the resulting scar will be permanent. It may, however, also be practiced as a right to passage. I have developed this branding to suit the changing economic order and have called it Password'.”

One of his works is a towering bronze sculpture titled, Erazer Pro, of a man holding a lathi and walking, reminiscent of the famous Gandhi figure in a simple loin cloth with a walking stick. The sculpture, however, looks as if in the process of being erased, which has been accomplished with a grinder. The sculpture holds a technical meaning too, of that of data, which though you try to erase, refuses to go completely since the operating system refuses to do so.

The artist, who fluctuates his base between South Korea and Bengaluru, feels that diverse stimuli like temple architecture, scientific apparatuses, various social themes and the response to it from the society, interests him. 'Being a practitioner of art, I am responding to those stimuli through a language, which I feel I can communicate better in. I do not see anything unusual in the process', says the artist, adding that the artwork will also travel to Nature Morte in Berlin.

Pallavi Pundir, Decoding the Past, 2012, The Indian Express