Anant Joshi is a newspaper devourer. With the information surfeit one gets today through all the various sources, the daily news from hard copy papers is the primary “feeder” to Joshi’s art practice.

The artist comes upon an almost comic episode of a common citizen from Madhya Pradesh who had filed an RTI (Right To Information) to the PMO’s office asking about the whereabouts of the original 3 Monkeys – a miniscule toy-like sculpture that was kept by Gandhi. The pursuant citizen Z was informed through his inquiry 3 years later, that the monkeys were (now) housed (as large sculptures) at Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad!
If one wonders about the ‘serious nature’ of such complaints, this episode was not lost on Joshi. It was possibly a trivial case of an even more trivial story, but loaded with irony.

The original statue that remained with Gandhi through his life – sited as an example to his million followers of “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” (but now gone missing) – has in fact become an ode to our times with its replicas floating in and around the various Gandhi ashrams. Making a parallel of Gandhi’s lost monkeys, Joshi’s sculpture titled ‘One for All, None to Call’ is a beautifully crafted bronze version, veiled behind a more colourful counterpart made in fiberglass – creating his own story of the missing monkeys.