FROM moulding himself in fibreglass cases as a cadaver to shaping 12 feet steel sheets, Jehangir Jani has tried almost every medium. Now, ‘Portraits’, his oil on canvas works, feature bronze-bodied men emerging out of the shadows. They celebrate the hedonist and painter in Jani, who has flirted mischievously with the notions of desire and confrontation. ‘‘I visited porn sites for ‘inspiration’ where I could study the male physique,’’ says the 49-year-old, who is also moved by other painters like Renaissance master Caravaggio and the late Bhupen Khakhar. ‘‘However, by the time my ‘characters’ emerge on my canvas, they have been personalised and reclaimed,’’ says Jani, who has always walked the thin line dividing pleasure and body politics. The suite of 18 shadowy oil on canvas works come after 11 years of neglecting this medium. Nevertheless, his apparent comfort with it allows him to raise some interesting questions about erotica in art. ‘‘The bodies you see on pornographic sites are disempowered. For them, it’s not about desire but economics, and the monetary transaction in a way nullifies their erotic charge. The figures I have done, on the other hand, confront the viewer on a one to one level,’’ says Jani. Besides his online ‘research’, Jani has enjoyed working with the palette knife on a fully black canvas. ‘‘Every other colour has a history of its own associations except black, so I chose it when I decided to work with ochre and burnt sienna.’’
