PROVENANCE:

Arario Gallery, Beijing

Jitish Kallet, born in Mumbai in 1974, has received unprecedented international acclaim and recognition as a contemporary Indian artist. His works encapsulate the excitement and dynamism of the new India, while being firmly rooted in his urban Mumbai origins. Painting in a Pop Art and Agit-pop style, his subject matter deals with the tragic/heroic realities of everyday life in the seething, dense and frenetic Mumbai. His works often focus on the downtrodden or dispossessed city dwellers, presenting them in a dignified and honorable manner as they cope with their daily struggles. His graphic style is bold and colorful, immediately drawing the viewer into his paintings.

His series "Dawn Chorus" from which the present work comes, depicts India's iconic street children, the street urchins who work long hours trying to scrape a few pennies together by selling trinkets, magazines and newspapers at traffic lights, or work as domestics for little or nothing. There is a preoccupation in Kallat's work with the theme of human struggle, but in 'Dawn Chorus' this is balanced with the themes of hope and survival. Instead of focusing on the misery of the kids, he celebrates their resilience and enterprising spirit.

"Dawn Chorus 23" captures all the beauty and pathos of an Indian street urchin. The look of determination and resilience on the boy's face is profound, disturbingly attractive and deeply meaningful. The effect of shadow and light on the chiseled features of the boy, help create an aura of invincibility and determination which is masterfully rendered in his eyes and mouth, and which is at complete variance with the viewers' expectations of the psychological state of a disowned youngster.

As a child of Mumbai, Kallat is deeply concerned with the physical and psychological burdens forced on its myriad citizens by its tumultuous and bustling nature. As with all the children in this series, the boy's hair is replaced by a Medusa like conglomeration of traffic and people, the everyday realities and experiences of city life in Mumbai - a city atop the child's head. Like a crown of thorns, the crown of Mumbai city life suggests the pain and throbbing inflicted by the frenetic, frantic and chaotic noise coming from all angles. The countless narratives of city life come tumbling into the boy's mind and the only way for him to resist being annihilated is to be strong, resilient and determined.

The painting is mounted on two bronze sculptures, which Kallat has recreated from the gargoyles on the roof of the 120-year-old Victoria Terminus train station in the center of Mumbai. Kallat suggests that the bronze figures symbolize the figure of the artist as a bystander, and a daily witness to the constant calamities of daily Mumbai life. The fact that the original gargoyles are still present after 120 years also suggests that Mumbai street life is survivable.