Important Notice

The present lot is part of Surendran Nair's long standing Cuckoonebulopolis series that he has worked on since the early 2000s. Borrowing the term from The Birds, a comedy by 4th century BC Greek playwright Aristophanes, the works in this series reference CloudCuckooLand - a utopian city built by birds - and the modern interpretation of the term as a romantic notion of idealism.

Nair's vibrant paintings are influenced by... The present lot is part of Surendran Nair's long standing Cuckoonebulopolis series that he has worked on since the early 2000s. Borrowing the term from The Birds, a comedy by 4th century BC Greek playwright Aristophanes, the works in this series reference CloudCuckooLand - a utopian city built by birds - and the modern interpretation of the term as a romantic notion of idealism.

Nair's vibrant paintings are influenced by classical imagery and mythology, as well as contemporary styles, kitsch and pop culture. Imbued with his unique sense of humour, they are gentle subversions of expected symbols, resulting in a pictorial language that produces entirely new cultural meanings. Theatre is central to Nair's art, stemming from his childhood exposure to Kathakali dance performances, and many of his works depict male figures as though posing in a play. In the present lot, each box - perhaps reminiscent of the game from which the work acquires its title - features an identical hybrid of a man and a swan, as though paused mid transformation. Each character is distinguishable only by his adornments, and the titles provide a name or context. Describing the work as "a poster design for an imaginary vaudeville" below, the artist underscores the elements of theatricality and humour.

According to Ranjit Hoskote, Nair's "fascination with the ceremonial of theatre is manifest: we see it in his evocation of the ritual of making up and presenting oneself in a persona, literally the mask of another personality; in the gestures of selftransformation that his characters perform, allowing for passage from one shape or identity to another; and in the ensemble action of animated visual image and stimulating text that characterises his paintings." ("The Openness of Secrecy: Soliloquy and Conversation in the Art of Surendran Nair," Itinerant Mythologies: Surendran Nair, Mumbai: Sakshi Gallery, 2008, p. 8)

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