Weathering steel meets mirrored metal as Abhinav Goyal redefines public sculpture through absence

What happens when monumental steel is built from nothing but negative space? Most large-scale steel sculptures are created to dominate a space. The latest collection from Delhi-based studio Formforge, however, is built almost entirely from absence, using just enough metal to evoke the memory of a form and leaving the rest to the viewer’s imagination.

When absence becomes the sculpture

The collection comprises three monumental works: a breaching whale, a remembered elephant, and a human head caught mid-transformation. Each sculpture is constructed through gesture, proportion, and a few carefully preserved details, allowing the subject to be recognised without becoming literal.

Form forge pairs two materials that behave like opposites: weathering steel, which continues to darken and change for years after it leaves the workshop, and mirror-polished stainless steel, which reflects its surroundings rather than holding a fixed identity. The studio allows each work to keep “recording” long after fabrication ends, through weather, light, and the people who encounter it.

“Negative space allows the sculpture to remain open,” says architect-turned-sculptor Abhinav Goyal. “It lets light, landscape, and architecture pass through the form while giving the viewer room to complete it through imagination. I’m interested in the point where an incomplete form can still feel emotionally and visually whole.”

But how does he decide what details to preserve and what to leave unsaid? “I look for the few gestures that define the identity of the subject—the curve of a back, the weight of a body, or the angle of a head. I keep reducing the form until it is close to losing recognition and then retain only what is essential. The aim is for the viewer to recognise the subject without the sculpture becoming descriptive or literal.”

For Abhinav, a sculpture must possess its own presence while responding to the scale, movement, and character of the space around it. “The most successful works feel independent while still becoming inseparable from the site in which they are placed,” he says.

His decision to combine weathering steel with mirror-finished stainless steel stems from the radically different ways the materials age. “Weathering steel records time through its changing surface, while mirror-finished steel reflects the present moment. One feels grounded and permanent; the other changes constantly with light, movement, and its surroundings,” he explains, adding that this ongoing transformation is an intentional part of the artwork.

Technology and craftsmanship, he believes, must work together. “Technology helps us develop geometry, proportion, and structure with precision, while craftsmanship begins when the material enters the workshop. Cutting, bending, welding, grinding, and finishing all require human judgement. Digital tools create the framework, but hand-finishing gives the work its final character and material presence.”

Parametric design, he says, has made complex forms easier to test, modify, and fabricate accurately. “It allows changes in proportion, density, or curvature to be studied across the entire sculpture. But the tool cannot replace the idea. Complexity alone does not make a work meaningful; the process must remain guided by artistic intent.”

As public art in India evolves rapidly, Abhinav believes audiences engage with large-scale sculptures very differently today than they did a decade ago. “People are far more interactive now. They walk around public art, photograph it, gather near it, and experience it as part of everyday movement rather than as a distant monument. There is also a stronger expectation that public art should respond to its site and create a meaningful spatial experience. That has made context, accessibility, durability, and long-term maintenance much more important,” he signs off.

—manuvipin@newindianexpress.com

@ManuVipin

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