Lot 33: My Next Door, But I Can't See

RIYAS KOMU (b. 1972)
My Next Door, But I Can't See
signed, dated and inscribed 'Riyas Komu 2002 3 x 2' oil, enamel, marble grain on canvas' (on the reverse)
oil, enamel, marble grain on canvas
23¾ x 35 5/8 in. (60.2 x 90.5 cm.)
Executed in 2002

Mumbai, Sakshi Gallery, Unconditional, 2002.

"Komu can deploy portraiture, also, to register a cryptic aside or oblique remark on contemporary culture, through the recording of a punk hairstyle, an unsettling hint of electronic distortion; occasionally, out of the corner of the eye we see a shadow on a window-pane. Komu does not permit us direct and easy access to his subjects: in his handling, the portrait becomes a fateful reminder: we see the Other as framed by the televisual eye, for Komu's figures are often marked as though with masking tape or black identity-protection bands, or partially concealed by lattices. Signs of immunity from recognition, these semiotic interpolations double as threats of de-personalisation: the rawness of the human predicament is sometimes camouflaged by these refinements, which convey both security and the constraint in relation to Komu's figures."

(Ranjit Hoskote, Unconditional , "The Menace of Framing, the Persistence of Hope: Recent Paintings and Sculptures by Riyas Komu", exh. cat., Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai 2002)