Inside (Window)

Speaking about his evolving relationship with the city of Mumbai and its suburbs, where he has lived since the 1970s, Sudhir Patwardhan notes, "Living here these past decades has become a strain, and I have felt alienated from the city at times. One can no longer encompass it as a whole in a panoramic image, and one lacks the guts to embrace it at street level [...] Withdrawing somewhat from this uncomfortable sense of fragmentation, a third way of relating to the city has emerged in my work in recent years: the city as seen from the window of one’s home (Inside, 2009). One gazes from the safety of one’s own space. The fragment is now held in steady view within the frame of the window. The intimacy of a private space is brought into relation with the outside. A play of inside and outside, a game of inclusion and exclusion is set up. As an artist, I enjoy neither the elevated position and authority of the panorama nor the sense of belonging in a street crowd. One has to live with the un-certain and shifting nature of this coming together of private and public spaces." (Artist statement, 'Retreat from the Streets', The Indian Quarterly website, accessed July 2018)