The State Of Art

AT A TIME WHEN THE RELEVANCE OF ART HAS NEVER BEEN UNDER GREATER SCRUTNY, THESE FIVE ARTISTS SHOW US THE NEED, AND EVEN URGENCY, OF ENGAGING WITH THE WORLDS THAT THREATEN US, THE STORIES WE CANNOT AFFORD TO MISS AND THE ISSUES THAT NEED TO BE DISSECTED TO THE BONE BEFORE THEY CONSUME US. NOT ALL ART NEEDS TO BE SOCIOLOGICALLY AWARE, BUT IF WE CAN'T HAVE ARTISTS MAKE SENSE OF THE REAL WORLD WITH ITS REAL ISSUES, WHAT ARE WE LEFT WITH, APART FROM THE USUAL CUSTODIANS OF CULTURE AND HUMAN LIFE? FROM SUBVERTING THE PATRIARCHAL GAZE TO LIBERATING LIVES BEYOND THE VIOLENT STATISTICS OF BUREAUCRATIC REPORTS, THESE ARTISTS SHOW USTHE NEED TO CHALLENGE AND THEN TRANSCEND THE VIOLENCE OF THE EVERYDAY

- ARMAN KHAN

Rithika Pandey

Blending Hindu and Buddhist mythology, Rithika Pandey takes us into the nerve centre of the contested relationship between nature and humans and the innumerable worlds along the way

Then you look at an artwork by Rithika Pandey, there are certain elements that leap off the canvas. A range of conical forms jut out of circular human faces; a ginormous blackbird is suspended in a human house between two magical pillars; a black dog with a constellation on his belly holds onto a man's legs for dear life.

A sense of environmental angst and anxiety shows up in her canvas by taking a circuitous journey beginning from Indian villages to the Welsh countryside.

"I like building strange and eccentric worlds," the Varanasi-born artist says. "After the second year of my art college, I travelled the world to gain the kind of insights I wasn't getting in art college. I was particularly inspired by the Welsh countryside and was happy to get into any arts college there, small or big, as long as I got the space to work."

Amidst the calm of the countryside, Pandey's art form became more structured. She could finally witness the degradation of humans and their relationship with nature-the willful ignorance of it all, how we keep pushing the limits of how much the natural world can take before it snaps into two.