Iranna’s Sculptures:
Silent Cry of the Modern Man
Blindness is a pathological condition but it connotes a
deeper meaning in his works. The humble posture of the
blinded heads lined one after another and the anxiety in their
countenance is bold and clear. Iranna captures the plight of
modern man where ideological state apparatuses like schools,
family, hospitals and asylum function as higher powers that
control and regulate our bodies and rebellious minds . The
blindness also indicates the lack of perception to unearth or
discern the truth from the layers of contrived ideologies that
are imposed upon our minds by various institutions. The
Birth of Blindness” in his own words, his work “is trying to
say something about the foolishness of everyone involved —
whether they being victims or aggressors — because they have
not thought about what their actions will mean” This state
of encounter or discomfort that Iranna brings to fore in his
sculptural installations beset the viewer with a lot of questions
about his standing or position within the very structure of this
societal value systems.
One of his other works titled, ‘The Dead Smile’ again
shows a blindfolded group huddled together, squatting naked
in different positions, as if they are lost in a maze. These
herded men appear as if they have been freshly captured
from a conflicted zone and await the impending torture on
their bodies. The tension, anxiety and fear in their squatting
positions is beautifully captured by Iranna through the bold
expressive contraction of the back bone muscles of these
plastic men. Again the men are blindfolded here as to suggest
that state inflicted violence or ideology can erase and wipe out
personal identity, so as to reinforce the state’s ideology. The
body and the mind are in abject surrender to the master that
is conspicuously absent from the scene but one can very much
sense the authority in its absence.