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Lot 79

 

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Living and working in Mumbai, Justin Ponmany's body of work may be located in the very urban intersections of personal and industrial, stasis and dynamism, both in terms of its material and its content. As Ranjit Hoskote explains, "In fashioning himself as a citizen and artist in a demanding, even inflammable metropolitan context, he seeks out implements that a robustly industrial-grade or pungently artisanal. His relatively unorthodox materials... Living and working in Mumbai, Justin Ponmany's body of work may be located in the very urban intersections of personal and industrial, stasis and dynamism, both in terms of its material and its content. As Ranjit Hoskote explains, "In fashioning himself as a citizen and artist in a demanding, even inflammable metropolitan context, he seeks out implements that a robustly industrial-grade or pungently artisanal. His relatively unorthodox materials include resin, epoxy, hologram foil and printing ink; the photographs that he takes of people and sites as he walks or drives around Bombay serve him as working drawings. His aesthetic combines the grittiness of everyday technologies of communication and protocols of iteration with the lyricism of a meditation on self, place, time, decay and survival" ("A Compass with Ten Directions", The Artist Lives and Works in Baroda Bombay Calcutta Mysore Rotterdam Trivandrum, Galerie Mirchandani + Steinrucke exhibition catalogue, 2005, not paginated).

The artist "...finds inspiration for his canvases in the turmoil of the Mumbai metropolis, in particular, the dynamic nature of the urban landscape. To remain grounded in a city defined by flux implies constant reinvention and adaptation of self. Using media ranging from holograms to smoke to traditional acrylic paint and charcoal, Ponmany captures the changing ethos of his home city and the struggles of his fellow citizens through a wholly contemporary aesthetic" (Bose Pacia website, accessed February 2012).

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