.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
"Mr. Kallat’s florals would make Des Esseintes covetous as each is composed of the hallucinogenic faces of human beings, their features coalescing into one another, as if the victims of a monstrous industrial accident or the results of an overzealous amusement park ride that has careened into a crowd of onlookers after snapping free from its cables. The “flowers”, so to speak, are cradled in a network of capillary tubes or perhaps lymph nodes, further accentuating the sensation of observing the physiological causes for either multiple personality disorder of the disjointed language of a fever patient." (P. Nagy, Jitish Kallat: Panic Acid, Singapore, 2005, pp. 9-10)
With a visual language derived from the city of his birth, Jitish Kallat explores India’s negotiation of post-millennial national identity through his paintings. In Suffix (Herbaceous Perennial) – 7, the artist represents Mumbai as a microcosm, examining recurring issues relevant to the city. In this painting, Kallat depicts two blossoming flowers or herbs, their tightly packed petals being made up of the faces of the masses or denizens of the city. Playing with the idea of the city repeatedly giving birth to clones rather than individuals, Kallat attempts to highlight the many contradictions that he sees in the growing economic metropolis. A spewing gargoyle painted on the flowering plants acts as a contorted reference to the grand Neo-Gothic architecture of Victoria Terminus, Mumbai’s busiest train station through which millions of commuters pass each day. Often including a variation of this gargoyle in his works, here Kallat emphasises on the physical and psychological burdens the common man faces on a daily basis in Mumbai.
With a visual language derived from the city of his birth, Jitish Kallat explores India’s negotiation of post-millennial national identity through his paintings. In Suffix (Herbaceous Perennial) – 7, the artist represents Mumbai as a microcosm, examining recurring issues relevant to the city. In this painting, Kallat depicts two blossoming flowers or herbs, their tightly packed petals being made up of the faces of the masses or denizens of the city. Playing with the idea of the city repeatedly giving birth to clones rather than individuals, Kallat attempts to highlight the many contradictions that he sees in the growing economic metropolis. A spewing gargoyle painted on the flowering plants acts as a contorted reference to the grand Neo-Gothic architecture of Victoria Terminus, Mumbai’s busiest train station through which millions of commuters pass each day. Often including a variation of this gargoyle in his works, here Kallat emphasises on the physical and psychological burdens the common man faces on a daily basis in Mumbai.