Lot 1115: TUSHAR JOAG

TUSHAR JOAG
(b. 1966)
Thinking and Planning
signed, dated and inscribed 'Tushar Joag/2007/UNICELL INTERNATIONAL/DEPARTMENT OF MONUMENTS/AND EDIFILES' (on the reverse)
pen, acrylic and ink on paper
122 x 213 cm. (48 x 83 7/8 in.)
Painted in 2007

Mumbai, India, Gallery Chemould, Tushar Joag; Reconciliation & Truth: exposition by the UNICELL International Department of Monuments and Edifices, January 2008.

Tushar Joag has described himself as an intervention artist, satirizing the plight of contemporary urbanity through the creation of objects that possess (dis)functional and aesthetic values. In 2004 Joag's artistic production was subsumed under the institutional canopy of an ersatz corporation called UNICELL that seeks to develop utilitarian objects which can offer solutions for the hardships of urban life.
Thinking and Planning (Lot 1115), was part of a project, developed by UNICELL's International Department of Monuments and Edifices titled 'Reconciliation and Truth,' that sought to reveal the frivolous costs monuments and icons pose to society. The project sought to prevent further financial and cultural strain on society, proposing that all future monuments 'be created as debris' and 'installed in a special zone that is neutral and unidentifiable.'
The suggestion to dissimulate icons and monuments to prevent further cultural anemia, undermines not only the fundamental function of the monument, but the efforts of the artist, who as Joag has noted, is responsible for maintaining cultural continuity. It is the irony of the agenda, however, that highlights and ultimately exposes the deep-seated inadequacies of India's socio-political institutions.