Images at 'Tiranga' at the Piramal Gallery are clichéd and are in contrast with the invite, which is stunningly graphic, says David de Souza
Naveen Jindal has a lot to teach us. And a lot of us one billion and counting have him to thank, for flying our national flag with honour and dignity is not a birthright as we may have thought. Last year, the Supreme Court vindicated Naveen Jindal's long battle with the Union of India, enhancing his and your rights.
The exhibition Tiranga currently showing at the Piramal Gallery includes well known names like Raghu Rai, Ram Rahman, Samar Jodha, Swapan Parekh, Dayanita Singh and Prashant Panjiar. The show may be summed up by a visitor's comment, 'good effort,' generally an enthusiastic put-down that tries to sound positive, but is patronising when one is less than inspired.
For the most part, the images are clichéd, despite the big names. They are in contrast with the invite, which is stunningly graphic. The photographs show flags being sold in the streets, hoisted over Parliament, painted on the backs of trucks and cabbies, saffron, white and green vapour trails at fly-pasts—the most obvious interpretations, more documentary than interpretive.
The only subtle image is by Udyan Sarkar, with a reflection of the tricolour in a woman's eye. Ajeeb Komahi is the only one who has tried to make some sort of interpretation, albeit amateurish, with children holding a bicycle wheel against an orange and white laundry line, with foliage in the foreground.
The exhibition, however, is an important journalistic exercise in recording the use of a national icon. Rajeev Sethi's quote is by far the most insightful and personal amidst all the patriotic brouhaha. He sees no disrespect in the use of the flag everywhere, believing that if images of gods are omnipresent, why not the flag. He views the use/abuse of icons as indicators of cultures. “For me” he says, “the change of icons is not a concern - but the level of faith.”
Prashant Panjiar has some images of jawans raising the flag after a battle, but that will forever be compared with the iconic Joe Rosenthal classic at Iwo Jima. The point would be to create images that burn into our own collective unconscious. He has a wonderful image that does this, with Mother Teresa's coffin being covered with the Indian flag. In the foreground are heads of state Hillary Clinton and Sonia Gandhi, bringing some irony to the issue of nationality by adoption.
There are many images of people making flags, but the one that might be most prophetic is by Bhomik Shah, with disenfranchised street children selling flags at the intersection.
Ram Rahman might add a visual verse to the famous Sting ballad by being an Indian in New York—his black and white images of the Indian flag being traded by an American in a flea market, and the surrealistic sight of seeing a nationalistic Indian procession in Madison, change the context and make one look inwards to review our own tolerance threshold and how we might reciprocate.
If the exhibition provokes us to ask 'who is an Indian,' especially when saffron and green flags are flown separately, it would have succeeded—but one is not sure it does. White is the presence of all colours.
Tiranga, curated by Vijay Jodha, Piramal Gallery, NCPA, ongoing till September 30
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