Important Notice

An ardent observer and commentator on identity and sociopolitical change, Surendran Nair draws his images from the abundant global archive of historical, religious, mythological, literary, political and artistic facts, practices and traditions that he maintains. The artist's provocative canvases link previously unrelated elements from these annals to push the limits of his viewers' notions of identity, community and reality.

One of... An ardent observer and commentator on identity and sociopolitical change, Surendran Nair draws his images from the abundant global archive of historical, religious, mythological, literary, political and artistic facts, practices and traditions that he maintains. The artist's provocative canvases link previously unrelated elements from these annals to push the limits of his viewers' notions of identity, community and reality.

One of the 'theatrical' devices that Nair appropriates in his paintings to convey his complex messages about identity and society, and to actively engage with the viewer, is the figure of the actor. "The act of painting is, for Nair, an offering of metaphors to his viewers: metaphors from which they can gauge the curve of the artist's imagination while also staging their own imaginative departures. Accordingly, the emphasis shifts between the artistic imagination and the viewerly one, from one painting to another. The artist indicates that some of his works are programmed in a relatively open-ended fashion; they function as scripts, around which viewers can improvise their own performances: some of Nair's paintings dedicated to the figure of the actor...function in this manner" (Ranjit Hoskote, "The Openness of Secrecy: Soliloquy and Conversation in the Art of Surendran Nair", Itinerant Mythologies: Surendran Nair, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai, 2008, p. 7).

In the present lot, one of the earliest canvases from Nair's Cuckoonebulopolis series of works, the artist paints the figure of an actor lying face down, resting between performances, wearing only a pair of bright red socks and a strap-on scorpion's tail. Simultaneously vulnerable and forbidding, endearing and intimidating, he is not only a conduit between artist and viewer, but also a vehicle for both to explore their identity and reality. "Incidentally, the Sanskrit word for actor: patra, also connotes vessel or container. The figures are thus cast as vehicles in an 'unreal' or hyperreal theatrical space that embraces many histories and traditions in order to get under the skin of contemporary reality" (Under the Skin of Simulation: Three Contemporary Painters, The Fine Art Resource exhibition catalogue, 2003, not paginated).

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