Lot 89: RIYAS KOMU (B. 1971)

RIYAS KOMU (B. 1971)
Untitled
crushed marble powder, sandpaper, acrylic and oil on canvas; diptych
42 x 66 in. (106.7 x 167.6 cm.) each
84 X 132 in. (213.4 x 335.3 cm.) overall
Executed in 2002

Mumbai, The Guild, DEBT, April - May 2002

"Komu's paintings function like a series of frozen moments, intervals within a larger mediatic narrative. But the visual freize that he shoots off a TV monitor or borrows from the print media is not treated as a direct download or upgrade for the painted image. In fact he destabilises the solidity of mediatic representation, questions its omnipotent verisimilitude. For instance, the diffused white light streaming onto the boy's face marks warmth and benediction, but the same white light turns ominous when used to bleach the Palestinian youth's glasses and his microphone. Other kinds of visual parentheses are also employed: sharp red and black rulings points up the figures, while Dahiwale is portrayed holding the borders of a world map whose scale and dimension are subverted. Continents shrink and enlarge according to mediatic realities, some are even made to disappear in the global theatre of war and conflict. With crushed marble powder, sandpaper, acrylic and oil Komu disperses continents and languages. You dont know whether the sounds of the microphone emerge from Palestine or riot-torn Gujarat."
(N. Adajania, DEBT, exhibition catalogue, The Guild Art Gallery, 2002)