Artist Sunil Padwal’s first solo show in Delhi will not feature his signature protagonist.
Artist Sunil Padwal seems to be miffed with the world at large. At least, that’s what he plans to express through his works at his upcoming solo exhibition at the Vadehra Art Gallery in New Delhi. “It’s not meant to be out and out negative, but yes, it does have negative undertones. Besides, it’s high time I spoke about the issues that have been disturbing me for a long time. My idea is to come up with works that will make the discerning art lover think,” reveals Sunil.
With his works having names like ‘Colour blind’, ‘Fragile’ and ‘Downbeat’, it’s not surprising that the exhibition starting on the 5th of June is aptly titled ‘Numb’. “As the name suggests, this show is about all those things that have upset me and left me numb,” he explains, adding that the works mainly focus on today’s flawed system “where unnecessary noise is being made about art that is being considered ‘obscene’ as opposed to paying attention to more pressing issues that affect the nation.”
What is even more interesting is the fact that after almost 13 to 14 years of portraying his now trademark protagonist, this time around, Sunil is taking a detour. “I’ve been wanting to do away with my protagonist for quite some time now, it’s just that I couldn’t zero in on the right pictorial form to replace it. But I’m ready with these works now and they have various figures and animals as opposed to the ‘man’,” he states. He cites an example where he has drawn a poisonous fly with a black tail. “The fly here stands for our system; there are many more works with much deeper meanings,” he says.
But isn’t it a bit of a risk to do something so drastically different? “I guess it is. But then, I have always loved experimenting,” he adds, noting that even the medium used here is different as he has now done a lot more pencil-on-paper drawings.
p_vidya@dnaindia.net
