Important Notice

Sourcing his images from historical archives and current news media, Shibu Natesan revels in juxtaposing seemingly unrelated elements on his canvases to probe the validity of perception and belief. By unsettling the world-view of his audience, Natesan challenges the authenticity of received images and information. As he explains, “A central part of my painting practice involves the quest for a resonant image that refuses to be read directly and... Sourcing his images from historical archives and current news media, Shibu Natesan revels in juxtaposing seemingly unrelated elements on his canvases to probe the validity of perception and belief. By unsettling the world-view of his audience, Natesan challenges the authenticity of received images and information. As he explains, “A central part of my painting practice involves the quest for a resonant image that refuses to be read directly and which obliges the viewer to make an interpretation” (Each One Teach One, Sakshi Gallery exhibition catalogue, 2007, unpaginated).

The artist “…works through a particular method of startling photographic simulation of the real. It is then rendered tense and evocative through an unexpected elision of symbols. In this way, he challenges the comfort of recognition... he brings in taut metaphors of physical domination and power structures in a world of moral contestation… the presence of the predator and the hunted, and the ever present, if passive, spectator. Thus… all violent action becomes spectatorial, and all assumptions of power are asserted as moral positions” (Gayatri Sinha, “Talks, works and realism”, The Hindu, New Delhi, 4 February 2005).

In the present lot, one of the artist’s large-format canvases, viewers are forced to remain spectators, literally barred from engaging with the scene by the mesh fence that Natesan has painted across the frame. Behind the tight lattice, they are confronted by a gaggle of geese, making their way across a slick, artificial surface, in search, perhaps, of a hole in the fence through which they might break out. Beyond these larger-than-life birds, a commercial plane and illuminated terminal building suggest that this is an airport scene; likely a new development that has displaced the geese from their natural habitat and dispossessed them of their freedom. Contrasting the trapped birds with the plane, Natesan makes an ironic comment on freedom and captivity, drawing attention to the asymmetrical relationship between the natural and the manmade.

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