News Story

Piyali Ghosh’s solo show

‘Genetic Disorder, Social Maladies,’ the solo show by Piyali Ghosh, opened at Anant Art Gallery, New Delhi in September.

The second solo of this Baroda-based artist, the show contains paintings, drawings and installations. The artist experiments for the first time with installations, which include paintings, woven wire mesh, metal swords, shields and crabs that cast shadows on canvases and walls and create a layered visual experience.

Self-consciously aware of her role as witness and commenter on contemporary social, political and economic ills plaguing the country, Ghosh uses the language of satire and animal allegory to mock the politician/ bureaucrat fattened on unbounded greed. Where the man is visualized positively swine-like with a thick neck and hint of a snout, the cocks and crabs, notorious for their in-fighting are used to represent a class of people who are unable to peacefully cohabit. She refers here to politicians who change allegiances based on personal greed and benefit rather than ideology or belief systems. But she also refers to the entangle that India and Pakistan find themselves unable to ravel and thus must constantly watch each other warily, periodically peck at each other with no end of the conflict in sight.  

She presents pitfalls that we can identify in this deeply flawed world. Her work has a moral purpose, drawing on a rich lineage of folk and fairytales, which include the works of Bengali writers Rabindranath Tagore, Upendra Kishore Ray Chaudhury, his son Sukumar Ray and grandson Satyajit Ray. Ghosh also acknowledges the influences of the murals of Kerala and miniatures of Rajasthan on her work.

A graduate in Painting from Indian College of Art & Draftsmanship, Kolkata in 2004, Piyali Ghosh did her post graduation in Painting, from Faculty of Fine Arts, M.S.University, Baroda. Her first solo was held in 2007, at Chatterjee & Lal, Mumbai. She has also participated in many group shows at the national level.

The show will continue at Anant Art Gallery, New Delhi till October 14, 2009.

- From A Correspondent.