‘I Wonder’ Rajesh Ram’s fifth solo show
Indira Lakshmi Prasad
Rajesh Ram’s fifth solo show ‘I Wonder’ came about after a hiatus of nine
years, consisting of the artist’s most recent body of work. The water color
and life-size bronze sculpture works are informed by the Panchatantra tales,
and encapsulate the artist’s interest in storytelling and use of proverb to
portray the state of the human condition as we see it today.
Rajesh Ram has succeeded in the amalgamation of perhaps the most
ancient collections of fables in the world, speculated to have risen from
oral traditions ‘older than we are able to imagine’. This exhibition is a visual
retelling of these animal stories, and placing them into the context of the
modern age, drawing from his own experiences and memories of growing up
in a rural village in Jharkhand and relocating to the bustling metropolis as
an adult.
The use of the animal form to portray the human condition has been used throughout the world since time immemorial, with morals being conveyed in the form of proverbs and rhymes which would implant into our memory. Rajesh Ram’s introduction into this world of fable was through his own childhood, with his grandmother narrating the stories to him. The messages held within them become clearer as one matures into adulthood, and we begin to connect the fables with the complexities of human relations with one another and the world around us.
The artist’s use of the motif of animals and children also communicate the concept of innocence lost in an age of rapid urbanization. Just as in the fables which are read to us as children, Rajesh Ram uses animal motif to re-tell the stories of a world on the brink of self destruction. The human and animal form are hybridized, and this is no whimsical coincidence. Moreover it is an ode to the animal nature inside each of us which the rapid urbanization of society pushes beneath the surface. Perhaps the loss of identity we have with the animal/natural world is part of the reason we see environmental crisis occurring at unprecedented levels. The collective unconscious of humanity has assigned meaning to animals in our folklore and culture, a concept which transcends language itself, therefore a poignant way to depict the global crisis which humanity faces.
In the water color piece ‘Hiding Yourself, 2017’ we see a small boy riding an ostrich who proceeds to hide from its problems by burying its head in the sand, perhaps an idiom for society riding on the back of a government who refuses to look at the bigger picture. We are each encouraged to draw from our own consciousness to assign meanings to the images, and find our own interpretations of the stories depicted.
There is a marked vulnerability in many of Rajesh Ram’s works, especially so in his life sized sculptural works of children. The image of the child is a poignant representation of innocence, a time before one learns the concept of malice, and in this way animals also serve as a reminder of inherent vulnerability and purity. The polished bronze of which his sculptures consist somehow connotes an immortalization of the paragon of innocence, even when the stories themselves are lost, the meaning of the proverb remains.
The use of the animal form to portray the human condition has been used throughout the world since time immemorial, with morals being conveyed in the form of proverbs and rhymes which would implant into our memory. Rajesh Ram’s introduction into this world of fable was through his own childhood, with his grandmother narrating the stories to him.
