MUMBAI METAPHOR

8220;I was born in Mumbai and spent my formative years in the city, including attending the J J School of Art. At 33, the city continues to influence my work8221;.

Mumbai has always inspired me as an artist. Even at the height of my autobiographical works in 1994-97, my self-portraits simulated an image on a public wall, peeling and layered with various graffiti. The city street is my university. When I step outside my home, I learn something that I never would in an art class. In Mumbai, an experience is almost always amplifier8212;whether it8217;s the joy of a festival or the terror of riots, and on a more everyday level, whether it is the minor scuffles in local trains or the bhajans being played en route. The city does not feature in my work in a direct way but through metaphors and reworking of images or photographs that inspire my work. I have moved from looking at the struggles of people in the city to the struggle of the city itself as if it were a living organism.

For instance, Petromorphine 8212; one of the works exhibited at Sweatopia, my recent solo at Mumbai8217;s Chemould and Bodhi Art galleries 8212; is actually a flyover packed with 1,000 vehicles. From a distance though, it resembles a wreath or a distorted tyre gone bust. Caught in traffic, the vehicles morph into a tangle of metal that8217;s rendered in a fragile-looking material which is actually quite hard.

Another example is Autosaurus Tripous, which is a rickshaw made of what look like bleached bones. Riot-damaged vehicles initially inspired this work but later it took on a life of its own 8212; as a grotesque toy that was tragic and funny at the same time. It could also be interpreted as an abandoned carcass of discarded automobiles in the fast-changing, strife-ridden Indian streetscape.

The work was the result of the many studies of burnt and destroyed vehicles that I had done during 2005 and 2006. It was only last year that the image emerged in its final form. Now it has the aura of a creature from a bygone era like a dinosaur displayed in a natural museum. It also resembles a vehicle at an automobile festival. Thus, it8217;s a mix of the past and the future 8212; a permanent feature of Mumbai.

I think the one big event that has had a great influence on my work is India8217;s economic liberalisation. The opening up of the economy in 1991 coincided with my early days at art school. The audio-visual detonation that one saw with the opening up of the media directly impacted my sensibilities. I began to imbibe the images I saw on television and on the billboards in the city, worked with them 8212; simplifying, layering and distorting them. It began with playful images and titles like Mom and Pop Art but later the works became less autobiographical.

My first large exhibition in New York titled First Information Report was a turning point in my career. The show comprised several sections of which Plat Du Jour 8216;The Dish of the Day8217; captured people coming out of railway stations. These were not conceived with political undertones but they began to speak a message-laden narrative after the Gujarat riots. They also spoke about the city in general and manmade disasters. I opened my practice to a wide range of impulses and stimuli not being bound by media, format or artistic language.

Eruda, also being showcased at Sweatopia, is an iconic sculpture of a young boy selling books near traffic signals. Made in black lead,nbsp;Eruda ensures that you receive a black stain on your fingers if you touch it, provoking notions of being privileged. Black lead is the softest form of carbon while diamond is the hardest.

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Another of my preoccupations is reflecting on death and mortality. Even when I was doing self-portraits, I was constantly engaged with the theme in works like Corpse Cry or Evidence from the Evaporite. These preoccupations continue into my current profile where works such as Collidonthus the crashed car sculpture or Autosaurus Tripous the auto-rickshaw carry a strong inscription of death as is omnipresent on the overcrowded Mumbai street.

Another recent work called Death of Distance shows two contrasting scenarios 8212; one, where a rupee connects the country8217;s north and south through an inexpensive phone call and the other, where a little girl commits suicide because her mother could not give her one rupee to buy something to eat. This work is a prelude to my future works wherein I wish to disentangle the bundle of contradictions we live with every day. I want to show the flipside of 8216;India Shining8217; or 8216;Incredible India8217;. copy;
As told to Georgina Maddox