Metamorphosis: Artwork Description + Curatorial Note

Saurab Koirala

Curatorial Statement by Roshan Mishra

Metamorphosis traces the artistic journey of Saurab Koirala, whose sculptural practice emerges from a deeply personal lineage and an interdisciplinary curiosity that bridges art, biology, and engineering. His earliest influence came from observing his mother sculpt, was an intimate introduction to form, patience, and the act of making. This foundational experience planted the seed for his lifelong engagement with discarded material and transformation.

While studying biology, Saurab developed a fascination with the anatomy and internal structures of living beings. The precision of bones, exoskeletons and muscle systems shaped his understanding of balance, symmetry, and function. Although he later dropped out of engineering college, his exposure to machines, tools, automobiles, and industrial design left a lasting impression. He began to notice striking parallels between human inventions and biological forms, how engines echoed muscular systems, how mechanical joints resembled skeletal structures, and how machines often mirrored insects, animals, and human bodies. This realization revealed how innovation itself has long been inspired by nature.

In Metamorphosis, Saurab weaves together these influences, his mother’s artistic sensibility, his own scientific observation, and engineering logic into sculptures made entirely from scrap metal and discarded materials. Without formal training in engineering or fine art, his practice is driven by an intuitive and deeply analytical understanding of structure and symmetry. Each work demonstrates a mastery of precision, where waste materials are transformed into living, breathing forms that feel simultaneously mechanical and somehow organic.

Beyond formal and material concerns, Saurab’s work carries an urgent ecological message. The very materials he uses such as industrial waste and scrap, point to the growing environmental crisis of overproduction and unchecked consumption. While waste impacts human life, its most devastating consequences are borne by insects, birds, animals, and aquatic ecosystems. Rapid industrialization and urban expansion continue to destroy habitats, forcing migration and accelerating extinction.

Through these transformed creatures, Saurab calls for a rethinking of our relationship with waste, development, and coexistence. Metamorphosis is not only about transformation of material, but also about a shift in consciousness. It urges environmentalists, policymakers, and the public alike to recognize their responsibility in protecting the fragile ecosystems that sustain all life.

By giving discarded metal new life, the exhibition asks a vital question: can humanity reimagine progress in a way that allows other species to survive, thrive and live alongside us?

The Heron On Hunt

The sculpture began with two things: I had this used silicone gun whose handle looked like a beak and the head took form. And the body followed where I used the chassis of a bicycle and I cut metal plates from a damaged fire extinguisher storage cart to make the curve of the neck and the bones of the wings where I attached the feathers I cut from a Hyatt kitchen’s cooling system that was discarded as an unusable broken item. The curved metal piece of the base of the neck is a bicycle handle which has this interesting curve. The wires sandwiched between two metal plates came from cables of cars.

Herons were a part of my childhood days where we could see them in considerable numbers during monsoon. They would visit our backyard which would turn into small ponds during monsoon and I used to hide and watch them. Trying to figure out what they do there. They would hunt for some insects, frogs, crabs and seasonal fishes that sprouted in great numbers in the ricefields.

Biratnagar used to be so full of life in monsoon. The gutters did not exist. There were just trenches where clean water flowed and me and my friends would go fishing there, just like the herons. We caught a lot of them. There was this particular fish we called Karba macha, that herons caught easily but we couldn’t because its dorsal fins had thorns and would hurt us. It was a very aggressive fish. There were other kinds of fishes, kotri fish, that was a tiny fish that had rainbow colored stripes. This chyangi macha that was so aggressive and curved its body like a snake and would jump at you. I have been very observant of herons. Their movement was so hard to notice. Staying still so patiently and the white color was so bright. I miss this bird. It was an exotic beauty that made my childhood rich and joyous.

The Defending Crab

Crabs were not easy to catch. They hid under mud and occasionally cut our fishing baits but unlike fish we couldn’t bring them home. Because they defended themselves so aggressively and bit our fingers with their claws. Some people ate them but I never did. Once though I brought a crab home. I had built this aquarium (which I had seen only in books) with white foam box with one side removed and stuck a glass panel with the help of wax on the groove that already existed on the box as it was used to transport medical supplies. It smelled funny, different from other fishes. I felt sorry for that poor thing because it died in a few days. It was easier to hold it in my hands dead and notice the pattern on the belly. I would blow air into the tank with a pipe because I had read somewhere that air needs to be mixed with water for aquatic animals to survive and all the illustrations in the books always had air bubbles in them.

This crab, though, doesn’t smell or bite. It has three main parts: car windshield wipers as legs, a piece of mixer blender jug as its belly and the central cover of some ceiling fan as its shell.

School of Asala

I have tried to make the school of fishes in ode to Asala fish, indigenous to Nepali rivers. So far I have seen two variants: one kind from Koshi River in the Eastern lands of Nepal and the other in Sano Veri or Uttar Ganga River from the Far West. It was a beautiful time in my life as we stayed in this remote village of Tukasera. The local guys would have this elaborate strategy of catching fish. We would help them build a small dam of corals and stones (khur) for fishes to gather away from strong currents. Later they pulled the fishes out with their hands in socks. The fish, they told me, are declining year by year. Koshi River is in the same state. Anyway, us friends each got 3 - 4 fishes. I had never eaten raw fish before except when I was a child and it was very bitter, but not this one. It was sweet and chewy. The villages in Terai scapes have constantly suffered from environmental change and pollution and the rivers are constantly rising. In remote areas the pollutants are mostly clothes, plastics from food products, rice packaging and the GI wires from stone barricades, In which the plastic and other pollutants get stuck, making rivers dirty & unpleasant. This needs to stop.

The Aringal (Yellow Wasp)

This exotic life form was something we were told to stay away from when we were kids. It built this strange alien looking nest that felt like wood. There was one in the storage of my house where we would store wood and metal. I don’t ever remember being stung but occasionally I would go to take a peek. Sometimes I would find some dead aringal and would keep it for some time till I lost it to the ants.

Commander Ant

My mamaghar had cows and their calves with stacks of hay in the cowshed. It had this huge crop land surrounding it. Heaven for all kinds of animals and insects, I would occasionally find this long march of tiny but relatively huge black ants. They had these strong pincers, keeping the line where the smaller ants march, in check. This sculpture is an ode to those commanders that taught me the importance of discipline.
It has small plastic pieces picked up from the soil, as it was stuck in the scrap yards, not even considered to be sent to the recycling plant. It also has a piece of a bicycle part and car windshield wipers as its legs.

Queen Ant

I would occasionally come across this huge whiter ant that had wings, surrounded by other tiny ants and provided security from the strong commander ants. I learned later that such ants could be a queen. It was a fascinating discovery for me. I don’t see them any more now. But I see a lot of motorbikes. And their petrol tanks look more like the abdomen of a queen ant rather than the figure of a female body. I find it funny how they use advertisements to sell bikes as much as they can and how everyone wants one.

The head is bigger than the actual queen ant’s but it got its size because of the scooter headlight cover which did relate to me as the head of an ant. The base of the wings is also a plastic body of a bike. The head rests on the seat of an old Indian-made bicycle. This bicycle was huge for us when we were kids but we still found a way to ride them. My friends and I would have lots of fun riding this type of bicycle in turns.

The head attaches to a flammable liquid blue colored tank whose purpose I couldn’t find out. And the wings are from Taragaon Next itself, used as a case to hold old metal working tools, axes, etc.

Gobre Kira

This life form was so attractive, intriguing and not so easy to find but I remember coming across quite a few of them in my childhood. Its body, so shiny and dark, so brutish looking made me be very cautious around it. I knew it wouldn’t bite easily but it didn’t stop me from being careful. The gobre kira that I would occasionally find were old ones and they looked rather clumsy.
The body shape and pincers are beautifully curved because of the design of the baby tricycle seat. The internal part of the head and pincers is yet another part of the Indian made bicycle. Its feet are the windshield wipers I collected from a scrapyard in Teku. Its eyes are on the lower side of either side of the pincers, difficult to notice at a glance.

The Coconut Shell Snail

Roshan dada, once during the beginning of the residency, showed me this coconut shell which I instantly wanted. It was clean and wonderful and later just perfect as the shell of a snail, that was two other major parts: a desk stapler and a car horn. The antennas are bicycle ball bearing on top of bicycle screws.

Our backyard would be infested with snails during monsoon. We had to pick it and throw it away because it would harm our vegetable garden. I would be disgusted because it was slimy but it had this wonderful nest where I would find lots of tiny white eggs. I didn’t like to dispose of them but I had no other choice because their numbers were overwhelming. I guess humans are taking that place on earth now. Have we infested it?

The Hunter Spider

This is an interesting piece. This sculpture is an ode to the tiny hunter spider. It can hop for 10 cm or so and it was so fun to chase. Even when for some length of time, my room would be considerably managed and clean, it would come up to my sirak and I would try to watch it as it hopped around and then disappeared in a while. It would hunt flies and other insects of its own size. And now, I’ve used a mosquito repellant device as its belly.

The head is a smaller bicycle bell and pincers are from bicycle parts too. The ball bearings were used to resemble its round eyes. The top shiny part comes from an electric shaver and is supposed to indicate the spider fur. The legs here too are from car wipers.

The Garden Lizard

The lizard changed its colors like a chameleon. We don’t have chameleons but we used to have these garden lizards in huge numbers. This very intuitive being appeared to me with its distinct eyes that looked like human eyes but with thicker eyelids and rough scaly texture. I also loved looking at its long claws with needle looking spines on the top of its neck. I think it felt confident in its hiding ability as well as its ability to blend into a leaf or a branch, but I would always see it peeking around curiously.

The body of this piece has this interesting and distinct car part which I honestly couldn’t identify but the claws are again car wipers. The shiny face is a part of a stereo speaker and there are mudguards around its neck that represent scales and spines protruding outwards. I had a good feeling about the car part so I made the end of the tail look more like an imaginary creature.

The Black Mantis

Though mantis are typically green, this has a black color because all the parts that I used to assemble this were already black.
I remember coming across this creature very rarely. A delicate creature with so much patience and surprising strength. I have never seen it eating though but I am very impressed with its camouflage skills.
It has this handle of some utensils as its belly, car wipers as its legs and hands and some plastic parts for its head. The antennas are also from car windshield wipers. It’s a male and is actually smaller than females.

Grey Mantis

The belly of this mantis is a motorbike silencer all up to its head. The legs are bicycle parts where the tyres are fixed at the lower end. Even the pincers but from a different bicycle. The head has old fluorescent tube holders and vehicle indicators as eyes.

The Dragonfly

There used to be abundant dragonflies in my hometown all year round except during winter. Winter had fewer dragonflies. They were our playing companions because they came to the same fields to play after school and during holidays.

As kids, we would catch them and tie a long thread at the end and fly them like a kite. Sometimes they would fly away with the long thread when I let go. They also hunted other tinier flies and insects.
In my sculpture, its tail is a part from a car and the legs are the clipper handles of paper flies. The head has a plastic component of an electric razor. The wings are from Taragaon itself.

The Crow

What can I say about the crow? We know it has successfully alongside us since ages. Once a year we worship it in Tihar as a whisperer of messages. I have always loved them and particularly their colors. Everybody sees them black but its feathers have these dark hues that are green, blue and yellow. It could be like a danfe but not as visible. You can only see them when light on it hits in some sly angles.

The body is a scooty silencer and I carved the claws out of the bicycle seat.

I had noticed a machinery joint that had resemblance to the crow. I cut one side of a joint to the shape of the beak and the other side was the neck. The tail feathers are bicycle mudguard and the wings are plastic cover of the scooter.

At the residency, after working the entire day when it was evening all of a sudden, the crows would come back and crow all over the compound. As if shouting at me to go home now, it’s time to stop working. Not that I listened to them but sometimes I did too.

Firefly

We had abundant fireflies around us when we were growing up. The cluster of fireflies was a sight to see. In the evening after school while playing, the fireflies begin to appear. My friends and I would sit a while in the field talking under the noon and fireflies, sparkling here and there around us.

When working late at the studio, I was struggling with the form of the firefly but then two of them came flying onto my table. Their light was dimmed because of the lights in the studio but I still noticed them. I placed a glass over them and watched them for a while.

The glowing belly is made with foam from some kitchenware coolant device. I have used parts of this machine in other sculptures too. The armor on its body are spoons and the head is from the kitchen coolant device.

The Young Fox

This slim muscular body is of a young fox. It has the legs of a revolving chair as its legs. The head is a Chinese made bicycle seat. The body also has bicycle and car parts like brake levers and luggage carrier springs and other complex parts.

Foxes used to live in the corner fields where we played and which would be crop fields seasonally. We used to get only glimpses. But there are many foxes here around Taragaon. When the sunrays hit them in the early mornings, it has this glowing orange fur which is so mesmerizing. These beings are very shy and avoid human beings as much as they can.

The Squirrel

There are few nature pockets in central Kathmandu; and some of them are Pashupatinath, Swoyambhunath, Pulchowk campus area, Garden of Dreams and Narayanhiti. There are few others that somehow become a small sanctuary amidst concrete jungle. For 3 seasons: summer, monsoon & winter - I would look at them; lurking here and there, climbing trees, hiding from view. I love their movements. Have you seen them nibbling on some seeds while sitting upright? That’s the form I chose for this sculpture.

It took me a while to figure out the components. The head consists of a construction site scaffolding joint. It has two rodent-like faces facing opposite directions. The eyeballs are part of Taragaon’s focus lights that were broken. The rest of the body came together much quicker after that.

The Duck

It’s by far the simplest assembly among the rest of the sculptures. The body is an electric kettle. The head is a gym exercising hanging handles and the feathers are scooter covers, all joined together by just four bolts.

There were not many ducks around my home but they were abundant in the outskirts of my city, since they were all farming villages. The village had bamboo earth houses, people using cow dung to cook in their own mud stoves, raising cattle like cows, goats, buffalos and lots of ducks. They would freely squawk around the village and in boring water tap ditch and in small ponds created just for them. Now there are only caged or dead ducks around me.

Flowers

I wanted flora and fauna together with the rest of the creatures. I had this cut out pieces from parts that I had already used elsewhere. It was just the right piece to be the joining piece between the petals and the stem; the remnants of what was used before differently.

The bike chains are the soil like many pieces of a jigsaw puzzle attached to complete a piece of the puzzle. This piece of ‘land’ can align to another piece and can bring the rest of the sculptures together.

Mushrooms

This is the final concluding piece of my residency here at Taragaon Next. This piece is meaningfully different from the rest. The bark is a representation of a dead tree trunk that’s dark red in color. It was from an old broken fire hydrant storage case. I had collected these strange metal parts, one kind with copper wire mesh and others with shiny rainbow colored stems. There is an exotic strange flower made from aluminium table fan blades, a kerosene stove burner and inner pipe of a motorbike silencer as its stem. The leaves have a somewhat different shape, which was me trying to depict an alien fauna. The overall feel of it also gives me a hint of steampunk flavor.