Travel Bytes

Bangalore-based artist Krishnaraj Chonats first solo exhibition in the Capital looks at tourism and its commercial twist

On the first floor of Nature Morte gallery is a sculpture of a headless man in steel,painted pure white,and in his hands is a large fish made of fur. He is wearing a flipper on one of his legs even as a red starfish rests over it and on the other leg he is wearing a ski. Titled The Catch,this is Bangalore-based artist Krishnaraj Chonats way of showing our desire to be at multiple places as tourists and how we want to capture the perfect moment.

Chonat is back in the Capital with his first solo exhibition titled All Sunsets are Sunsets,where he has addressed the contemporary form of global tourism taking a commercial turn as compared to the old fashioned idea of travel. The title of the exhibition has been inspired from Portuguese writer and poet Fernando Pessoas couplet where he has talked about sunsets being the same everywhere. It was during his research on various writings on tourism that he came across the writer,who extensively wrote and criticised organised travel for the elite. Chonat says,Nowadays,travel has become a mark of status. Someone who travels a lot is thought of being more happening as compared to someone who doesnt travel and is usually looked down upon.

In his work Emerald,a white swing made of fur poses perfectly with the sea painted on the wall in the background,almost resembling the pictures that one sees in tourist package advertisements. He says,I have tried to show the various images that are used in tourism marketing to lure tourists,and the various strategies they use. A rusted binocular that I have placed in front of the work speaks about our tourist gaze how it is conditioned by tourist photography. Tourists go to visit places with a particular picture in mind. He says that the need of being clicked everywhere and circulating the pictures clicked on a vacation has in itself become a primary need to travel,more than the experience of a place or its people.

Through Anopheles Victorius I,which has a big black mosquito sitting on top of a glass cabinet that protects an armour of a soldier from ancient times,Chonat looks at malaria and its relation to history. I found that both,Genghis Khan and Alexander died because of malaria. The work shows that this continues to exist. I have tried to draw parallels between history and now, he says.

The exhibition is on display at Nature Morte till March 16 between 10 am and 6 pm (Sundays closed).Contact: 41740215

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Travel Bytes

Bangalore-based artist Krishnaraj Chonats first solo exhibition in the Capital looks at tourism and its commercial twist

Bangalore-based artist Krishnaraj Chonats first solo exhibition in the Capital looks at tourism and its commercial twist