Beauty of the Beast

On display for the next month at the Fort gallery,the works include paintings,photographs and sculptures. While some of these were chosen by Maniglier from among already existing works,others were created especially for the show after the artists watched the film. “I didn’t ask the artists to work on the theme,specifically,” she says. “I picked out some works on the basis of the story.”

Hangover Man,for instance,falls into the former category. A seven foot-tall sculpture by Baroda-based artist Siddhartha Kararwal,the all-white work,created using white shirts,wax and iron,shows a rider atop his horse. For viewers familiar with the story,this sculpture calls to mind the horse of the beast,also entirely white and called Le Magnifique. This work,Maniglier says,immediately caught her fancy when she first saw it. “When Siddhartha (Kararwal) showed me the sculpture earlier,I knew I had to show it,” she says. “So when we planned this show,it had to be a part of it.”

Two sets of photographs,one by London-based artist Rachel Cunningham and the other by Goa-based photographer Pat,were also selected from among works done earlier. Cunningham’s works —from her 2010 series,The Prag Mahal — show large,white,gothic chandeliers,reminiscent of the ominous-looking ones in the beast’s castle in the film. Pat’s photographs,on the other hand,reflect various aspects of the film. The work Blind Dead,Road,for instance,could well be the forest Belle’s father gets lost in before he finds himself at the beast’s castle.

The works by Baroda-based artists Bhrigu K Sharma and Preksha Tater,however,were made after the artists watched the film and drew from their individual impressions of it. Tater’s works recall the bodiless hands holding chandeliers in the beast’s castle,while Sharma’s often unite the beauty with the beast,almost saying one cannot exist without the other. His drawing on the wall at the entrance to the gallery,for instance,shows a figure with a face of a beast but the elegant body of a woman.

Lochan Upadhyay’s 2011 work reflects the other crucial element of the film. This processed photographic print,Phools Paradise,shows multiple images of the artist’s face in a garden of petals. In the film,the beast first confronts Belle’s father in his garden after the man plucks a rose,setting into motion the events of the story.