Cryptic calligraphy that reveals a bigger story; mundane objects that play hide-and-seek, and pictographs that have an entire world hidden in their midst. Ashok Ahuja’s eyes light up with the enthusiasm of a 12-year-old about to reveal a great secret when he talks about his art. Of course he’s 53, a seasoned journalist, theatre personality and film-maker. As an artist who waited a long while before bringing out these hidden forms, Ahuja says, ‘‘I’m glad I waited because I discovered which works were just a stage and which were meant to stay.’’ Now the Delhi-based artist is in Mumbai with a travelling solo that showed at Delhi’s ArtINC and in Kolkata.The show encompasses a variety of work done over different periods in his life. ‘‘It all came about by accident,” he says. “One day you see everyday objects differently, and then you can never see them the way you did before.’’ He quotes a Zen proverb: ‘‘Before you attain enlightenment, a tea cup is just a tea cup.” Inspired by this, Ahuja has created photomontages in which objects morph into one another. A seemingly sensuous navel is in fact an abstraction of a commode. A Western-style toilet pot could be an object of desire, or perhaps even a face. In others, a mundane table top strewn with potatoes or, in a third it becomes a set of lyrically placed falling leaves. Another body of works comprises calligraphic writings—actually abstractions from brain scans. ‘‘It’s not important whose brain it is. My interest lies in creating a universal expression. I’ll be happy if the viewer thought it was his or her brain scan.’’ Many of his less abstract photographs bear traces of Ahuja’s experience with the camera at the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune. His two award-winning films, Aadharshila and Vasundhara, were precursors to the short, digitally animated work he’s showing currently. “Even while making my feature length documentaries, I was hesitant to give my characters names. I wanted them to be universal,’’ says Ahuja, a senior fellow in residence at the Harvard University Centre for the Study of World Religions. His studies at Harvard find form in his book, The Third Race (Seagull, 2004). As he unveils the packing on his work one can’t help but admire the detailing. The handcrafted feel of each page and charming illustrations of the hero Totoi (a cute little turtle), may lead one to think it’s a children’s novel. ‘‘But the book gets more complex as it goes on,’’ says Ahuja. The show concludes November 4.
