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Journalism of Courage
In his novel Alice in Wonderland,English author Lewis Carroll uses the term Caucus Race to mock the UKs caucuses. The dodo,a character in the novel,suggests a caucus race which,by his description,consists of all the characters running around in a circle with no clear winner to dry off after they are drenched in Alices tears. Using this phrase and the idea of the illusory race from the book,artist Mahesh Baliga presents his third solo exhibition,titled The Caucus Race,at the Project 88 gallery in Colaba.
Picking up where he left off after his first and second solo exhibitions Looking Sideways and Confabulations in 2009 and 2010 respectively Baliga continues to explore the concept that the ordinary is not necessarily straightforward and may,in fact,be rather uncertain. The works in this show,he says,talk about ambition and the imaginary race of growing up and portray his notion that the urge for order actually leads to disorder.
A sea of people form the background of a large-scale diptych,titled Order of Beings,and in a comparatively empty space in the foreground are three sets of people. Of these,the most noticeable,despite the fact that the colour they have been painted in almost blends them into the space,are two men shaking hands. The men occupy the space at the bottom of the painting,the borders of the point where the two canvases meet,their hands seeming to form the meeting point of the two. To Baliga,this gesture represents the fact that they have reached an agreement,in this case one that could be that of selling the land they occupy.
For Baliga,more important than the subject of his work is language of art and what it portrays. My main interest is art and the language of art, he says. I use this language as an object and the focus of my work is not the subject, he says.
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