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Lot 25

 

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Born into a Bengali Assamese family, Ashim Purkayastha is familiar with political divisiveness and violence. Concerned with issues of identity and marginalization, he uses iconic symbols of the Republic to communicate his dissent of the state and its actions, particularly in North Eastern India.

In the present lot, a large-format canvas, Purkayastha defaces an Indian revenue stamp to raise questions about power and responsibility.... Born into a Bengali Assamese family, Ashim Purkayastha is familiar with political divisiveness and violence. Concerned with issues of identity and marginalization, he uses iconic symbols of the Republic to communicate his dissent of the state and its actions, particularly in North Eastern India.

In the present lot, a large-format canvas, Purkayastha defaces an Indian revenue stamp to raise questions about power and responsibility. These stamps are symbolic of contractual agreements between the government and its citizens, and in Purkayastha’s opinion, many of these guarantees and obligations have been ignored by the state. “As [Purkayastha] obsessively hand paints multiple grids and sequences of stamps, or magnifies details of revenue stamps on canvases, the turbulence of spectral citizenship and the venom of state-sponsored violence is spewed out and channelised into idiosyncratic picture-bombs” (Nancy Adajania, “Dadagiri: Ashim contra Gandhi”, Borderline, Anant Art Gallery exhibition catalogue, 2006, p. 2).

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