Important Notice

Brought up in a Marxist household in Kerala, Riyas Komu was heavily involved in political activism during his student days. Moving to Bombay in 1991, the year that the city was brought to its knees by religious rioting, he was deeply affected by the violence he witnessed. It is not surprising, then, that Riyas Komu’s art is frequently confrontational, engaging the establishment in protest – both explicit and implicit – against political... Brought up in a Marxist household in Kerala, Riyas Komu was heavily involved in political activism during his student days. Moving to Bombay in 1991, the year that the city was brought to its knees by religious rioting, he was deeply affected by the violence he witnessed. It is not surprising, then, that Riyas Komu’s art is frequently confrontational, engaging the establishment in protest – both explicit and implicit – against political violence and socioeconomic inequity. By bringing the oppressed and victimized into sharp focus, the artist’s oeuvre, including sculpture, installation, video, photography and painting, pushes the contented viewer out of his or her comfort zone.

In his series of monumental canvases titled Systematic Citizen, Komu has painted close-up portraits of the migrant labourers who work for a pittance at a garage near his studio in Mumbai, each with a unique tale of survival to tell. Here, the artist leverages the dimensions of his surface, not to alienate his viewers, but rather to draw them into an intimate exchange with his lone, magnified subjects in an effort to record and validate their unheard stories. “His work is often in-your-face, large and seemingly unfettered by practicalities of realisation, akin to theatre. His portraits are often stark, staring at you with frank gazes, like they’d tell you their history, their hopes, their reality, if only you asked. That is what Komu seeks– that the viewers ask, because it only could mean they care” (Bodhi Art website, accessed May 2009).

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