When raw material turns into finished art forms

Meet Aswin Manikandan, a 22-year-old, who uses raw materials like bath soap, thermocol and chalk for his creative experiments and carves solid, breathtaking 3D models out of them. He has made over 190 sculptures so far.

His journey started after he watched Mozhi, a Tamil movie featuring actors Jyothika and Prithviraj, where in a particular scene, the former gifts the latter a violin model carved in soap. Speaking to The Young Hans Aswin says "I was only in Class VIII then but I was fascinated with the concept and it was all I could think about for days. I wanted to create something out of soap too."

So acting on his impulse, he tried carving a carrot out of a bath soap that was lying around at home. "It wasn't a success," he recalls, adding, "I did not pursue it after that and focused on drawing cartoons and doing water colour paintings things I had been doing since childhood and was very familiar with."

His interest in soap carving took a backseat till he entered college. The final-year B.Tech computer science student recalls wondering what to get his father as a birthday gift during his first year of college. He whittled an image of a person with his arm around another and the words 'My Hero' engraved below.

The gift not only impressed his dad but also his friends and he began receiving orders for soap sculptures. With orders coming in from other States, he started an Instagram page named 'C.e.l.e.b.r.a.t.i.o.n', through which he gets enquiries for custom models. He is also launching his official website celebrationsoflife.com 'on Sunday.

In order to impart his learning to others, Aswin has conducted four soap carving workshops. "I love the real-life effect that 3D models exhibit. I love creating things. The feeling of making something from scratch using just a few basic materials and tools is incomparable." says Aswin

Be it the life-sized Pokemon characters he has created using thermocol or the soap carving representing MS Dhoni's characteristic way of taking the stumps after every victory.

Aswin's biggest thermocol model is life-sized at 5 feet. His alien thermocol model he has recently been shortlisted for an international competition conducted by Stan Winston University.

One of his soap models, 'War and Peace', depicting a gun shooting out a dove like a bullet, won him an invite by Banditto Art, an art gallery in Tuscany, Italy, recently to submit the work for the Banditto Residency Prize.

"Keri James, the chief curator of the event, saw the work on my Instagram page and asked me to submit it," he says. Aswin is now trying his hand at portrait sculptures.

Aswin has shared some tips "While carving you will notice that some soaps are tough enough to withstand chiselling. You have to be focused and handle the soap with care, otherwise slight damage can break it. You need to imagine your model in 3D and sketch down all the angles.

After that, you start working on the material chosen, make basic blocks according to the sketch and trim the extra. When working with soaps, patience is the key. You have to be extremely careful of the cuts. Thermocol sculpting is fun but the cleaning process is a huge task."

"I dream of being a prop maker in big film studios. I would love to travel the world and learn about different forms of art and better myself. Eventually, I would like to start an establishment to support other artists – preferably a studio with a workshop or something on those lines," concludes Aswin.