A headless figure walks confidently against the colours of the Indian flag. This work from 2002 is called ‘Progress’. ‘Hunting’, a 4x6 ft oil on canvas done in 2014, is about the terrifying incidents of lynching due to cow slaughter. ‘Pandemic’, an acrylic on canvas, deals with the illness that brought the world to a halt two years ago.
‘Oasis’ seems, at first glance, a niche space for beauty and peace, but a closer look reveals that ‘a terrible beauty is born’, in the words of W.B. Yeats. The canvas shows a shrunken manicured space filled with flowers; the elephant ears turn into butterfly wings, building blocks meander into the sky and a parched earth holds a disquiet world.
Nemom Pushparaj’s ongoing solo show ‘Dystopia’ at Durbar Hall Art Gallery features these works and more. Artist, filmmaker, and writer, the former chairman of Kerala Lalithakala Akademi is known for presenting social inequity, injustice and discrimination through his works. In this show, he also addresses the invasion of technology into our lives and the resulting dystopia from an increasingly wired world.
