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Lot Essay
"raumanama (The Cry of the Gland) is a portfolio of works on paper that opens up the body almost like Rorschach inkblots, the stretched muscles and dripping fluids metaphorically become receptacles of urban trauma." (Artist Statement, June 2011)
Jitish Kallat's raumanama (The Cry of the Gland) uses a lexicon of urbane imagery fused with humanoid anatomical contortions to create startling hybrid monsters of the modern day. In these works, grotesque, skeletal creatures collide, trapped in a bitter struggle against a relentless dystopian metropolis. These unrecognizable forms were once human and are a hyperbolic and symbolic reminder of the effect of the city on the body, physiologically, phenomenologically and psychologically.
"[...] the city is rendered as a space of collision and chaos; within 'Traumanama' an isolated body mutates under the incessant traumas of urban living. The title is inspired by the grand Mughal miniature portfolios such as 'Razmnama (the Art of War)' or the 'Hamzanama (the Mythical Adventures of Amir Hamza)'; in a parallel vein 'Traumanama' becomes an imaginary pictorial recital about the symbolic figure of a 'traumapolitan'; the inhabitant of an imagined 'traumapolis', a space of unending strife and conflict." (Artist Statement, June 2011)
Jitish Kallat's raumanama (The Cry of the Gland) uses a lexicon of urbane imagery fused with humanoid anatomical contortions to create startling hybrid monsters of the modern day. In these works, grotesque, skeletal creatures collide, trapped in a bitter struggle against a relentless dystopian metropolis. These unrecognizable forms were once human and are a hyperbolic and symbolic reminder of the effect of the city on the body, physiologically, phenomenologically and psychologically.
"[...] the city is rendered as a space of collision and chaos; within 'Traumanama' an isolated body mutates under the incessant traumas of urban living. The title is inspired by the grand Mughal miniature portfolios such as 'Razmnama (the Art of War)' or the 'Hamzanama (the Mythical Adventures of Amir Hamza)'; in a parallel vein 'Traumanama' becomes an imaginary pictorial recital about the symbolic figure of a 'traumapolitan'; the inhabitant of an imagined 'traumapolis', a space of unending strife and conflict." (Artist Statement, June 2011)