Why Don’t You Paint Flowers Mr. Komu?
  • 2 years ago
Mumbai-based multimedia artist and curator, Riyas Komu, has enhanced a number of Outlook editions with his artworks, including the latest one titled Errors, Omissions and Insertions, which features his artwork on the cover and in BJP leader Rakesh Sinha's column titled, Time's Up for the Green-Red Club. The artwork gracing the cover is from his Holy Shiver series of woodcuts produced as part of a solo show at the Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi, in 2018. It is reflective of “militant enthusiasm”, the zeitgeist of our times that manifests in lynchings, hyper-nationalist acts and macro-politics of violence that have injected fear and uncertainty. Sinha's column, which is on how the BJP wants to give us this history of ancient India that has not been talked about, is juxtaposed with Komu's hyper-realistic painting titled, Gandhi from Kochi. The image acts as a contrasting element that views the Mahatma as a symbol of resistance, especially in these times against forces determined to rewrite history. Among many things, Komu is the ideator of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale and the co-founder of Kochi Biennale Foundation. He has been the advisor and visual arts curator for the Serendipity Arts Festival in Goa.

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