Important Notice

Though they seem extraordinary, Jagannath Panda's paintings are not derived from imagination or fantasy. Based on his personal experiences, both as a rural migrant and as a city dweller, they represent the artist's projections about the not-so-distant future. Panda's canvases, although light and unassailing, reflect the conflicts we create and face on a daily basis, originating, for the most part, in the contemporary and related phenomena of... Though they seem extraordinary, Jagannath Panda's paintings are not derived from imagination or fantasy. Based on his personal experiences, both as a rural migrant and as a city dweller, they represent the artist's projections about the not-so-distant future. Panda's canvases, although light and unassailing, reflect the conflicts we create and face on a daily basis, originating, for the most part, in the contemporary and related phenomena of rural exodus, express urbanization, and the resulting crowding and dislocation of life.

These conflicts, however, are not exclusive to humans. As Panda understands them, not only do they involve nature, they are pivoted on the constant tussle between environment and development, nature and technology. Reflecting on this theme, Peter Nagy explains that the artist's use of plants and animals as subjects enables him "…to address environmental concerns, to speak of the collision of Nature with Culture which has become so predominant in India today. How can the developmental needs of an increasingly avaricious urban society be resolved with the necessity to protect wildlife habitats and to respect the values of indigenous communities? By using animals as his protagonists Panda alludes to a desired circularity where the reciprocal influence between the cultures of the powerful and the subordinate can be at balance" (Nothing is Solid, Gallery Chemould exhibition catalogue, Mumbai, 2007, unpaginated).

In the present lot, a monumental triptych titled Home Grown, the artist has extended his interrogation of such conflicts to the still-adolescent field of space exploration. In this scene, a shiny new rocket has just taken off amidst a cluster of hutments, inadvertently blowing the corrugated aluminum roofs off some and setting fire to others. In the foreground, ripe pumpkins hang off vines, quietly assessing this most recent development in their back garden. Representative both of one of our most recent technological conquests, and of our frenzied drive to claim and colonize all that we can, this work humorously asks viewers to consider, literally, the lengths they are willing to travel in order to expand their sphere of influence and control.

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