Some walls of Sakshi Gallery in Colaba are painted like the Blue Screen of Death, others in chequered white and grey, like a burst of pixels. Set against this vibrant background, contemporary artist Nandan Ghiya’s latest works are installed on time, a day before his debut solo show in Mumbai kicks off. Dressed in a white T-shirt, denims and a pair of sandals, the 37-year-old artist arrives at the gallery to meet us. His T-shirt features a pixelated, minimalist figure that strikingly looks like his face, and more so like an extension of his latest artworks.
Ghiya is fascinated by the relationship between man and technology, the real and the virtual, the past and the present, the indigenous and the global; all of which is reflected in his show, Studio Portraits from the 22nd Century . The artist has sourced old photographs from scrap dealers, pawn shops, street hawkers and flea markets across Jaipur, Jodhpur, Delhi and Mumbai and deliberately destroyed, distorted and pixelated them to depict the transition of art, photography, culture and human values from the last century to the present. “These portraits are a representation of who we are, or more like what we would be in the 22nd century,” says the artist.
Technological tussles
Ghiya takes pride in the fact that his works are accessible and bereft of philosophical or artistic complexities. “Some art can be intimidating,” he says. The self-taught artist grew up in a family of traditional studio photographers, but was detached from the practice of portraiture. It’s only later that he felt the need to reconnect with it. In the process, he noticed that photography had gone through a tectonic shift with the advent of selfies, which he says is a modern-day form of portraiture. “But people aren’t satisfied with the way they look in selfies, so you have filters and software like Photoshop and Prisma.” As a comment on image enhancement, the artist painted pixels on old portraits. “Thereby it also makes the portraits visible again in the 21st century.”
With titles like ‘An Interracial Couple in a Transmission Error’, ‘A Couple Meeting/Separating on a Photoshop Screen’ and ‘A Marwari Lady Camouflaging on Bluescreen’, the artist has particularly targeted faces by distorting them with technological glitches like pixels and the blue screen. “I think we’re becoming faceless people and aspiring to look the same,” says Ghiya, who believes that the face is just a façade and can no longer be the flag-bearer of identity.
The artist has instead retained cultural elements that lend character and identity to an individual, like turbans, necklaces and saris. “I belong to Rajasthan. You couldn’t just say that from my appearance, but there was a time when you could,” says the artist, whose work is heavily influenced by Rajasthani culture. But amidst the dramatised obliteration, you will find smaller, almost hidden, statements in the works — on consumerism and corporatisation — by using elements like watermarks and corporate logos.
Decoding deconstructivism
Studio Portraits from the 22nd Century , in several ways, is an extension of Ghiya’s previous shows DeFacebook (2010), Download Errors (2012) and Blue Screen (2015). As the names suggest, the exhibitions explore the struggle between human values and rapidly changing technology. But what may seem like a digital distortion of artworks is actually hand-painted alteration by the artist. Ironically, the very act of deconstruction is a pursuit to restore the image and thereby one’s identity. “It’s deconstruction of the self through another medium,” says the artist.
While Ghiya seems to appreciate works of art which are rooted in culture and tradition, his own creations are contemporary and modern. “But I like what I do,” he clarifies promptly.
The artist’s works may at first overwhelm you, but once acclimatised, the thought behind it is worth driving home.
Studio Portraits from the 22nd Century is on till April 8 at Sakshi Gallery, Colaba
