Lot 841: JUSTIN PONMANY

JUSTIN PONMANY
(Born in 1974)
UNTITLED NO. 2
signed, dated and inscribed 'justin ponmany 2007 untitled' (on the reverse of each panel)
acrylic and holographic pigment on canvas, diptych
Each: 191 x 162.3 cm. (75 1/4 x 63 3/4 in.)
total dimension: 191 x 324.6 cm. (75 1/2 x 128 in.)
Painted in 2007

Gallery Nature Morte, New Delhi, India

In a world where the media and government have the ability to monitor all aspects of contemporary life through controversial and invasive technologies, the term "individual" has become synonymous with a computer generated identification number. A paradox has developed in our postmodern society; on the one hand individual experience is still a private and intimate occurrence yet regularly vulnerable, and never safe from, public scrutiny and examination through online search engines, emails, text-messages and blogs. While we are more connected as a global community we have never been more anonymous as individuals. The art of Justin Ponmany exploits this cultural anonymity in an effort to reclaim the self.

Here Ponmany explores the link between the individual and technology by simultaneously presenting human form as both a portrait and a book. A polychromatic portrait of a man's head is projected onto the open pages of book-a dictionary or encyclopedia perhaps-and then overlaid with an assortment of text in Hindi: Guru- Jupiter-Thursday-Respected, Ravi-Sun-Sunday-Religious, Shani-Saturn-Saturday-Charitable, Chandra-Moon-Monday-Rich, Budh-Mercury-Wednesday-Educated, each signifying several meanings. The mitered position of the two canvases physically mimics the shape of a book and symbolically suggests the opening (or closing) of the human mind-an archive of personal memories. By pairing the book and the head Ponmany blurs the distinction between object and subject. The unconventional angle and uncomfortable proximity, only possible through a zoom-lens, actually makes the subject's identity indiscernible. The subject is no more alive than a dusty old book and the subject's memories, which once shaped his individuality, are reduced to general classifications like the standardized definitions in reference books and web based search engines.

Ponmany's choice of materials further underscores this paradox of individual and technology. The effect of the holographic pigment forces the viewer to physically negotiate his position in front of the canvas to see what would be invisible to the eye alone from a single vantage point. As one object is revealed another recedes into the abyss of paint. The viewer's interaction with the canvas becomes a form of physical dialogue, which is absent in digitally generated exchanges of information. Each time the viewer changes position a new phrase emerges and initially the words seem to offer the possibility of a cohesive message. However, this act of negotiation, although revelatory, is also apocalyptic. As this "dialogue" between the viewer and painted surface continues it becomes clear that each revelation, each redirection of light on the painted surface, fractures both the images on the canvas and their meanings and the text quickly dissolves into scattered digital gibberish. The viewer is caught in a matrix, appropriately signified by the polychromatic honeycomb grid that traverses the painted surface, of ultimately arbitrary signs.

Absorbed by the array of words the viewer finally steps back to bring the whole composition into view and the image of the man re-emerges. While forms of digital media may actually increase the possibility of dialogue they have also narrowed the world into overly generalized depersonalized classifications and key words. Ponmany reminds us to beware of the babble of icons as the finished object may bear little resemblance to the subject. But, perhaps it is only through rupture (the dissolution of meaning) that memory of self can survive.