Gandhi I found

Ink jet print on archival paper

For years, I have been collecting objects that seemed interesting, but without any design. However, one day when I started placing them one next to the other, magic happened. Unexpected meanings started emerging from the juxtaposition. This naturally led to a process of exploration and expansion of the association of meanings. I began photographing the various arrangements. Eventually, what started as a playful experiment became a serious project and its scope got expanded and gained immense depth.

Behind this exercise, the concept of Sannidhi’ was constantly in the mind. (Sannidhi is a concept found in traditional Indian aesthetic discourse. It roughly translates as ‘Proximity / Close-by / in the presence of’). Along the way, I realized that my project and the concept had become irrevocably intertwined: I had begun to interpret it in visual terms, exploring how new meanings are generated when two or more objects come into proximity.

But it is not to say there was no pattern to the whole thing: the arrangements were planned to some extent but as the shooting proceeded, fresh ideas emerged, new associations popped up. This entire process can also probably be called ‘Photo-performance’ in the sense that it is a photo documentation of continuously changing installations happening in the studio space. Here conventional / given meaning or primary meaning of the objects are unfixed, transformed, extended and distorted. More suggestive and evocative interpretations become possible because of the new associations. Personally, for me, this journey of surprises seems never ending.

These works are about re-engaging with Gandhi and his ideas at various levels. This particular image was influenced by the way we have deified Gandhi and given him a divine status instead of embracing his principles in day today life. In that consecrated state, sitting on a high pedestal, he is ‘harmless’ to us because he becomes almost divine and we can escape any meaningful action by referring to our mortal weakness and in comparison ‘Bapu’ becoming a ‘super human being’. It also suggests him being an angel of peace.