Surendran Nair is an ardent observer and documenter of the transformations sweeping the socio-political geography of India. As he explains, over the last decade his work has explored and challenged “ideas of identity in relation with modernity and tradition, from a critical perspective” (The Bad Behaviour of Singularities, Sakshi Gallery, 2006). Borrowing ideas and images from history, myth, literature, artistic traditions,...
Surendran Nair is an ardent observer and documenter of the transformations sweeping the socio-political geography of India. As he explains, over the last decade his work has explored and challenged “ideas of identity in relation with modernity and tradition, from a critical perspective” (The Bad Behaviour of Singularities, Sakshi Gallery, 2006). Borrowing ideas and images from history, myth, literature, artistic traditions, rituals and politics from India and abroad, the artist uses his canvases to create connections and provocative associations between previously disassociated elements. In this context, the message of Nair`s paintings is always related through layers of metaphors and unusual references.
In Nair`s ongoing suite of works, titled Cuckoonebulopolis (an Aristophanian ideal world created in his play, Birds), he explores the idea of a utopia, or escape from all that is base in this world. As Nair explain, “Though the basic premise of imagining a utopia fascinates me, in the sense that it is a craving for a better world and thus a critique of the times…I use the idea of a utopia as a backdrop, a theatrical device to sharpen the contours of my images; the inner terrain they carry within and the outer, which they find themselves in, as well as to accentuate the tenor of whatever they address” (Ibid.). In this surrealist piece a body with a traditional brass Indian oil lamp as a head seems to mock the way in which customs and rituals in particular, and organized religion in general can sometimes take over a person`s life.