One tends to go for an art show expecting to see rows of canvasses lining the walls, each one a contained study of an aspect of the artist's soul. One doesn't expect colour, light and texture to virtually explode off the walls. With statues, reliefs, paper collages and masks tumbling against each other, Chintala Jagdish's solo exhibition at Iconart was a riotous walk through the bright and the eclectic.
Towards His Own Time was a shift in Jagdish's typical artwork revolving around the rural. With a studio in Florida, the exhibition was a reflection of the western world. A series of paper collages reflected the change in seasons, from spring to summer to autumn. Cut-out trees were splayed against each other in dense foliage while the water strips below had different tints based on the season: reds, blues, deeper violets. Another collage showed the Florida wetlands, while a third was a scenic view of multicoloured hills scooped and sliding against each other in glorious colour.
The simplicity of the materials used was belied by the detail. Jagdish's series on paper collage flowers had petals exploding from the frames, in sunshine yellow, indigo, purple, orange and red. Across the room was a twin set of reliefs titled He & She , with faces juxtaposed against each other, the features merging and shifting.
A third form of artwork stood as a sun and moon in pure gold, in stark contrast to the heavy mask of a tiger which growled down at a sculpture in the centre of the room — Room mates , showing two female figures. The painted sculptures looked light and almost graceful, but tap your finger against it and the sonorous clang of aluminium rang out. It was a veritable walk through Wonderland.
A return to the rural was seen in a series of frames with textured reliefs of Telangana doorways, with heavy carved wooden doors framed in arches edged with gold and white.
The exhibition at Iconart Gallery ended yesterday.
