Reconstructing Bapu

Digital photograph printed on archival paper.

This was initially done as a preliminary set of studies for the paintings I was planning to doing at that time. I did paintings based on these works. But they are also independent set of images in their own right.

When I visited Gandhi Museums in Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Delhi I collected old Gandhi photos and statues sold there. Here I have used those photographs brought from museums. I had pasted square mirrors on a board at different levels. The reflection of the photos in this constructed mirror collage was captured in my photographs. Because of differing heights the image gets fragmented. Features of Gandhi are so iconic that even at such fragmented level we can recognize the personality. But it is not an organic whole but a distorted perception, reconstructed image based on bits and pieces. In a way that fragmented image of Gandhi is what my generation has.