Chinese chicken, anyone?
What does a work of art, a chicken and China have in common? DNA explores an art exhibition in which Riyas Komu's sarcastic work draws parallels between the three.
Artist Riyas Komu’s work titled Take Away at an exhibition currently on display at the Guild Art Gallery is a map of China sculpted to look like a chicken. Around 99 chickens hang from a wall. Besides them, one stands on the table as the preened salesman attracting potential buyers. Yes, the installation is laced with his sarcastic views of the modern Chinese “materialistic urge.”
Komu says, “China was always an attraction in terms of its ideological relations with Kerala, where I was born and brought up. I have always thought about the changing Chinese attitudes in relation with the changing world. The Neo-capital material urge of China dismisses my emotional interest towards them as a nation which mechanised human labour like a drill.”
Although the work was planned way back in 2007, only last year was it displayed at the Shanghai MOCA (Museum of Contemporary Art). Komu says, “I decided to show it only in the right context and luckily I got an invitation from Shanghai MOCA last year. Later it was selected for the Delhi Art Summit.”
Along with Komu, several other contemporary artists will be showing their works at this exhibition titled Sculpture. One of them, artist TV Santhosh says, “My works are more of an ethical and philosophical questioning of the current events across the globe. And who is the real enemy? It’s not just about terrorism that comes out of religious fundamentalism. It is about the violence terrorism unleashes and the counter measures the state employs which actually leads to more violence.”
Artist Sudarshan Shetty who strives to escape from the social framework while collecting scattered fragments of daily life has also displayed a work in this exhibition. He says, “I wanted to lure the viewer with the deception of products, ones that we negotiate with on a daily basis. I try to define this space with familiar objects, to create a dialogue between them that may reveal some truths to me about my own life. I find this the best way to have true communication with the world at large.”