“A stainless steel mirror finish captures infinity”: Metalworker Ranbir Sidhu on his new AGO exhibition
The artist, whose work is collected by Drake, will debut a two-tonne sculpture at the gallery this month
On December 11, the AGO will present the futuristic works of Ranbir Sidhu, a metalworker and artist from Scarborough whose creations have been commissioned by the likes of Drake and Jay-Z. Working with mirror-finish stainless steel, silvery aluminum, iridescent niobium and more, he twists rigid metals into implausible shapes, pushing the boundaries of his craft. Suitably, his exhibition is titled No Limits. We caught up with Sidhu to talk about growing up on the shop floor, the power of metal as an artistic medium and the engineering challenges of exhibiting a two-tonne sculpture in a gallery.
How did you first discover metalworking as an art form? I grew up on the east side of Scarborough, around Meadowvale Road and Sheppard Avenue East. My family owned a metal fabrication shop, so I was exposed to the world of making early on. It led to a lot of curiosity. It was like a science class meets a shop floor. Seeing sketches, alloys and finishes brought wonder to my life at a young age, and watching metal change shape gave me a passion for precision that informs my practice today.
When was the first time you used those skills to create a work of art? I was always interested in the pursuit of form. In my early 20s, I created a “paper” airplane out of a few sheets of metal that were engineered and welded together.
What is it about steel that speaks to you as a medium? Steel is strong, reflective and timeless. I’ve seen the ways steel, aluminum and even gold can transform. They hold precision but also possibility. A stainless steel mirror finish captures infinity. Gold evokes the sacred. And materials like niobium shift colours like living things. Metal lets me bridge the earthly and the cosmic. It turns raw materials into forms that carry stories across time.
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And now you’ve got a solo show in the AGO. What are you making? There will be three monumental sculptures: “Asteroid 3033X1,” “Fortress of Memory” and “Odyssey.” They’ve been in my imagination for about a decade, but only now am I bringing them to life. They’re never-before-seen works crafted from mirror-polished stainless steel, marble and some elements of crystal. They’re really bold, immersive pieces, designed to pull you into a space where Earth and the cosmos meet.
Let’s start with “Asteroid 3033X1.” What’s its deal? It’s been in the making for nearly five years. It’s an attempt to push the limits of metalworking and create something that feels both of this world and beyond it. The form draws from the crystalline geometry of azurite: there are 500 facets converging into a single, unified structure. I imagine it as a vessel capable of leaving Earth and carrying the essence of the planet into somewhere in the future, like a relic waiting to be discovered.
Far out. Can visitors walk through it? Yes, it’s quite large—almost 10 metres in length, three and a half metres tall and four metres at its widest point. It’s a truly monumental sculpture.
How do you get something that enormous into the AGO in the first place? That’s our starting point. We look at the constraints we have to work with in the space: elevators, doorways, turning radii and such. So we think through those things while trying to avoid creating unnecessary seams in the work. I don’t want to let those issues get in the way of the pursuit of form, which is at the core of my practice.
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What can you tell us about the second sculpture, “Odyssey”? It’s composed of 100 different vertical spires that together create the feeling of a Byzantine dome or Islamic minaret. They all reflect on each other, which is quite mesmerizing. All in all, it has 1,000 components, and the whole piece weighs over two tonnes.
That’s extremely heavy. Did making a piece of art that hefty pose any challenges? It’s interesting—the spires connect to the ground in just four places. There’s very minimal connection to the floor, but a lot of weight. The AGO team had to scan their floors to find the locations of the beams and ensure the structural integrity of the room. They said they’d never had to do that in the history of the gallery.
What about “Fortress of Memory”? It’s a memorial and an offering. It consists of 21 individual sculptures produced in marble and stainless steel, positioned in a V formation. That’s all I’ll say about it, though. Seeing it in person will create a grander effect that I could describe.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
