A WORLD OF HER OWN

MADHVI PAREKH'S MYTHIC IMAGINATION IS ON FULL DISPLAY IN HER SOLO SHOW AT DAG, DELHI

- Aditya Mani Jha

Madhvi Parekh’s acrylic-on-canvas painting ‘Travelling Circus in My Village’ (80 x 240 inches, 2024) is one of those large-scale works that simply have to be seen in the flesh. The pixels on your screen cannot come close to reproducing its ambition, its grandeur, its irresistible strangeness. A messianic figure lies at the centre of the triptych, holding a snake aloft like a canopy above his head, the faithful gathering around him slowly. An array of human-animal hybrids fills every corner, the chimeras ranging from a biped cow to a snake with a human head, to a horse that has a human face nestled close to its heart. All the while, a determined-looking man carries a temple on his back. Like the triptychs of Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch, “Travelling Circus in My Village’ tells a story sequentially, and it seems to acquire new details with every fresh glance. The work is part of Madhvi Parekh: Remembered Tales, a solo exhibition at DAG, Delhi, that started on July 11 and shall conclude on August 23.