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Lot 91

 

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Part of a suite of unique prints created during a residency at the Singapore Tyler Print Institute in 2006, this large work reflects Nataraj Sharma's ongoing engagement with the theme of urbanization, and its effects on the landscape, both natural and human. In this work, titled Flag March 7, the artist extends his interrogation of urban behaviour to the politics of crowds, both ordered and haphazard, and the phenomenon of the collective or mob... Part of a suite of unique prints created during a residency at the Singapore Tyler Print Institute in 2006, this large work reflects Nataraj Sharma's ongoing engagement with the theme of urbanization, and its effects on the landscape, both natural and human. In this work, titled Flag March 7, the artist extends his interrogation of urban behaviour to the politics of crowds, both ordered and haphazard, and the phenomenon of the collective or mob psyche.

A serigraph with colour flocking on pigmented paper, the present lot can also trace its genesis to the artist's interest in the way in which groups evolve and space is divided and colonized. Drawing from earlier works like RSS Parade – A Hole in the Sky (2002) and The Wall (2005), Sharma's Flag March suite can be associated with both youthful celebration and militaristic indoctrination, a formation of dancers in a parade or a looting horde in a riot, “…testimony to the duality of the social aggregate” (Ranjit Hoskote, “In a Zone of Transformation”, Nataraj Sharma: Stretch, Bodhi Art exhibition catalogue, New York, 2007, p. 17).

Having personally experienced the religious violence and genocidal events that rocked the state of Gujarat in 2002, “Sharma…traces a connection between massed formations and the will-to-power, testifying to the disturbing vision of the right-wing collective that dominated India during the last decade. The efforts to control knowledge and will, the uneasy tensions between minorities and majorities, the fine line between patriotism and jingoism, and the tussle between heterogeneity and the desire to impress homogeneity, are evoked by the figures…” (Nataraj Sharma: Stretch, Bodhi Art, www.bodhiart.com).

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