jitish kallat

Humiliation Tax
8 Feb - 25 Mar, 2005

In each of the six canvases collectively titled Humiliation Tax, the centralized image of a young underprivileged child appearing variously as a street waif, a child labourer, a juvenile victim of numerous atrocities, forms the protagonist of the series. Rendered with a stylised drawing that absorbs elements of realism and caricature, these children are amongst the most vulnerable group of city dwellers. They embody the spirit of survival, holding up the twin narratives of strife and grit. The children take their centralised position across luminous, psychedelic backdrops, where repeated inscriptions of the name of the deity, skewed and twirled, achieve a radiating effect. The word 'Ram' repeated endlessly morphs itself into 'Mara'; death and deity interchange on the bright backdrops of these canvases.

The devotion and defence mechanisms of the lower cast Ramnami sect of Chattisgarh, whose bodies are entirely tattooed with the name of Ram were in many ways the starting point for this series; these inscriptions on their skin form a protective shield from upper caste brutality.

Formally speaking, the paintings obtain their tone from the fleeting pop poop on television, the retinal code of the billboard and the fierce economy of agitprop posters.

Ecto (meaning outside), the life-sized statuette of a street child drinking straight from a kettle, with feet shaped like homes, forms the quintessential image of a nomad whose home is where he lays his feet. Treated in black-lead, he ensures that you take back a black stain on your fingers if you choose to touch him; touch remains the moment of friction for all interactions between the privileged and the underprivileged. Yet another metaphorical underpinning that interests me is that black-lead is the softest form of carbon while diamond remains the hardest.

Rainbow Pictures (All You Can While You Can) is a series of photo-images of politicians shot on TV and pinched on PC, wherein the already multi-coloured images unbolt to reveal rainbow colours. Ironically the patterns that emerge remind you of the intricate lines that form images on currency-notes.

Jitish Kallat
Feb 2005 (Mumbai)