TICKLING THE BURLESQUE BONE

Sushma Sabnis

(Humour of the satirical and the burlesque kind dominates artist Anirban Mitra’s work which thrives on hyper amplified imagery dipping its feet in various streams of life to set off a cannon of visual bombardment. Hitting the viewer with this carnival of colour, thought and diversity, the artist presents his first solo at Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai, reviews Sushma Sabnis. REVIEW Mumbai Sushma Sabnis)
The neon orange skinned yakshi of Ajanta gazes at the viewer presenting the roti maker with a puffed up roti implying her fertility, a picture warns the buyer that the colour sticker authenticates an original 99.9% effective bug killer, a newly wed bride with silver scratch and win tags all over her decorated body entices an eager bridegroom. The omnivorous human Bakasura wearing peacock feathers devours everything in sight. Mr Muscle promises domestic excellence and Wonder woman carries pitchers of water for the thirsty. At the onset, the works appear large, colour intense and overflowing with kitschy imagery and motifs which seem disconnected and disjointed. The artist brings in his varied interests, memories and urban experiences to the canvas, building up and constructing images which initially may or may not appear linked. The juxtapositions of these individual motifs which leap out at the viewer come from a plethora of sources. One could find references of history, mythology, art, literature, geography, biology, chemistry, politics, pop culture, advertising and television commercials,m intermingled with childhood experiences and photography of functions, freak shows in circuses and village fairs. When one stands in front of the canvas, the eyes wander rapidly around the numerous things going on simultaneously in the visual. It could be compared to watching a colourful silent movie. As Virginia Woolf says in her essay ‘Language of film and the evils of cinematic adaptations of literature’, “The eye licks it all up instantaneously, and the brain, agreeably titillated, settles down to watch things happening without bestirring itself to think.” Though Anirban’s work initially evokes a benumbing shock of a response, it then spurs the mind into a frenzy of decoding of the visuals. One would then realize that these are not randomly placed isolated bits and pieces to create a mammoth scrap book on canvas, they actually take references from time, space, history, and cultural nuances to weave a complex story. Ironies and analogies masquerade and at times shout out mocking the absurdity of events and situations. This can be seen in the painting, ‘Exhibition of Kalighat Paintings in Victoria Memorial Hall’ where effects and after effects of colonialism are explored. The question is, ‘Who is the outsider, and who is the insider?’ where the artist recalls a show of Kalighat paintings by Indian artists displayed in the Victoria Memorial hall in Kolkata. The paintings interspersed with large marble statues of ex-viceroys of the Raj, looming over like guardians of the paintings which were created in India. The obvious irony is captured in this work, where three British viceroys stand dressed in Roman togas with motifs of prosperity surrounding them. In between these statues is the sprinkling collection of Kalighat paintings, which were taken away as memoirs of the rule when the British left the country. Also in this painting, the gender issues are explored as the country, the feminine, the motherland, being invaded by the men in togas, and how the upkeep of these men is ironically done by a queen who also is seen as the nurturing mother. Observations of the caste and class divide which rubbed off from the British on the well to do Indians are shown as ironic examples from his own family. In another assemblage of photography and art works, the artist puts together the metaphor of marriage and its stability using the images of the very bamboos tied together to construct the marriage pandal. Taking this theme further and infusing it with dichotomies of speed using toy guns with slowness of garden snails, he creates ‘Tower of Babel’ an acrylic on canvas work which is replete with contrasting cliches and opposing motifs addressing the concepts of dominance in a marriage, promoting inequality. Biological diagrams of insides of snails, and deep veined diagrams of leaves imply the lineages of the belief systems, which are unspoken odd compromises adhered to by humankind to maintain a sense of an elusive balance. This is Anirban Mitra’s first solo show and in spite of critiques about his work being ‘too much’, it could be seen as a concerted effort to create with a sense of purpose and hours of extensive research to back it up. However, if this consistency were to be maintained as an art practice, it would require the artist to evolve his expression in some way, to avoid monotony over the years and the risk of becoming graffiti-ish / pop art at best. The artist reveals that he paints what annoys or disturbs him and it is his way to solve the issue through his works. One could see this as a dangerous inspiration, because age can bring in tolerance or an eventual acceptance or worse, indifference. The risk of running out of inspiration would be unfortunate. What one cannot deny is that this artist is one of the few ‘thinking’ artists of our times and what remains to be seen is how his thoughts shape his future work.