FOR GOD'S IMAGE

SHAURYA KUMAR'S SHOW TACKLES THEMES LIKE THE REPATRIATION OF IDOLS TO INDIA, BUT HE IS PLAYFUL THROUGHOUT

- Shreevatsa Nevatia

Working as a professor at Chicago’s Art Institute, Shaurya Kumar, 43, enjoys a ringside view of sorts. He can see how visitors engage with artefacts in the Chicago Art Museum, especially the Indian Gallery. One Ganesh Chaturthi, he saw a group of women huddled around a Ganesh idol they felt they could recognise from their village. “They were about to pray to the statue, but the guard stopped them. He said what they were seeing is a stone sculpture, not their god.” Kumar has seen similar scenes in Sarnath and Sanchi, too. These encounters made him ask: what happens to temples after their gods leave?