Of Gandhi on cola bottles, art at its quirky best

[1]

It is quite well-known that Hanuman, the mythological monkey god flies but does he ride a space mobile? Well, at the ongoing India Art Fair, he does. And, giving him company at the venue are “Gandhis” on cola bottles and shop shutters lending a pop avatar to the Mahatma’s image.

Through his bold colours and eye-catchy mixed media design on metal signs, Thai artist Pakpoom Silaphan has brought art legends like Dali, Warhol and Frida Kahlo, as well as the icon of non-violence Mahatma Gandhi, on to a graphic canvas with a subterranean commentary on the structure and imageries of capitalism. So, while Gandhi stands in triplicate on a cola bottles titled, Triple Gandhi on Pepsi and Gandhi on Coke Bottle, iconic Spanish surrealist painter Salvador Dali finds a throne in Dali sits on Enjoy Coke. Silaphan also pays a graphic homage to the Mexican painter Frida Kahlo in the work titled Frida sits on Double Pepsi and makes a bold sweep of “juxtaposing art and commerce and their intertwining relationship”.
Represented at the Fair by London-based Scream Gallery the artist’s adaptation of a non-violence icon into a pop icon certainly turned heads at the Fair, which came to a close on Sunday. “Gandhi is an icon, with or without any art form, but this merging of iconic commercial brands with iconic legends certainly makes for a great pop art reminiscent of Andy Warhol’s earlier works,” said Ananjay Bhushan, a gallery-owner himself and a visitor at the Fair. And, the inspiration and tribute can certainly be seen, as the image of Warhol against a beverage brand titled Warhol on Pepsi stands out, but somewhat dwarfed by Dali’s majestic posture. Gandhi’s odyssey at the fair, however, doesn’t end here, as his image jumps from Mahatma to that of his student and Barrister days, as a black-tie suit-wearing Gandhi rolls out on a steel shutter.
Presented by city-based Vadehra Art Gallery, the Untitled work by Atul Dodiya renowned for his “shutter art”, also bears images of other Indian freedom fighters and European thinkers on its top beam inviting a mix of curious stares and careful contemplation.
But Gandhi isn’t the only one enjoying an “artistic makeover” as god Hanuman dons a spacesuit riding a space mobile over an ultra-futuristic city imagined by a young artist Anant Mishra who makes his debut at the fair.

Titled Avatar I, the painting inspired from the Indian scriptures and “Dalían surrealism” attempts to bridge the “eastern wisdom with western imagination” and is presented by Religare Art. “For painting the Avatar series, I read the Shiva Purana and other scriptures and then I used Dalían surrealism way to paint the canvas fusing hyper reality with imagination. I would dream of my canvases all day and night and then harness my subconscious mind to finally effect them,” Mishra said.
And his efforts seem to have paid off, as most of his works have been sold after being received exceptionally well. “His body of works titled Avatar was received exceptionally well by collectors and the general public here,” Amit Sarup, president, Religare Art said without declaring the prices fetched on them. More artists seem to draw inspiration from the Mahatma’s life and presented it in unusual and sometime bizarre manner, making a silent commentary on the current state of affairs in “India after Gandhi”.
A fibre-made sculpture of Gandhi standing in a “frozen” semi-molten state with his stick has certainly intrigued the visitors. “Though the face is half-molten, the skull and the chaadar and his trademark stick and him standing on salt, are a good hint as to its identity. It’s a sarcastic commentary on the ‘missing Mahatma’ from our contemporary lives driven by commerce,” a visitor interpreted the art.
The sculpture by Hardik Dokshit and presented by Delhi’s Dhoomimal Gallery has the “molten Mahatma” standing on a huge heap of open sacks of salt, “a reference to his
historic Dandi Salt March”.