Tallur L N
(1971)
a) Dinosaur Egg; b) Export Design; c) Barter System
L.N. Tallur was born in 1971 in Koteswara, a small village in Southern India. Over several years of exposure and experimentation, the artist developed a truly unique idiom, where each piece is complex and physically diverse. The time that the artist spent at the Maharaja Sayyajirao University of Baroda and Leeds Metropolitan University deepened his understanding and manipulation of material, encouraged his engagement with symbolic ambiguity, and...
L.N. Tallur was born in 1971 in Koteswara, a small village in Southern India. Over several years of exposure and experimentation, the artist developed a truly unique idiom, where each piece is complex and physically diverse. The time that the artist spent at the Maharaja Sayyajirao University of Baroda and Leeds Metropolitan University deepened his understanding and manipulation of material, encouraged his engagement with symbolic ambiguity, and also pushed him to broaden the conceptual and physical scale of his works - all of which are reflected in his practice today. Tallur's three dimensional works incorporate a dynamic mix of ideas relating to philosophy, politics, culture, tradition, spirituality, technology and the environment, the artist's works capture the absurdity of everyday life and the anxiousness that characterizes contemporary society. Frequently, these works present their message through dualisms or binaries. They offer a grotesque take on reality while portraying a certain beauty which the artist captures by creating forms assembled from found objects that are often starkly different, yet seemingly connected. The present lot offers viewers a set of drawers, cabinets and found objects - all individually familiar to the viewer, yet, together, presenting an elusive mystery that poses challenges to the imagination. Martha Jakimowicz discusses Tallur's practice in depth and explores the underlying layers of his works, which reveal a network of connections that maneuver between the past, present and future. She explains, "Basing on the experience of his early museological studies, Tallur often works with, rather than found, chosen objects from mundane reality. He shuffles and twists them, adds his own forms to them and builds around them conjuring environments which oscillate between furniture, display cabinets and fancy contraptions that are filled with evident or inconspicuous images that in the steered situation gain new significance. Opening the lids, drawers and boxes the viewer interacts with contradictorily layered images that confront evocations of the past mutating in the present, together their impact widening onto a comment on social, political, cultural and personal phenomena observed and subverted through ironic playfulness but held together by warmth and involvement" (Marta Jakimowicz "Bulimia, Alzheimer's and Esophageal Reflux", Indian Contemporary Art Hungry God, Arario exhibition catalogue, Beijing, 2006-07, p.92).
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Lot
33
of
140
AUTUMN ART AUCTION
24-25 SEPTEMBER 2013
Estimate
$20,000 - 30,000
Rs 12,20,000 - 18,30,000
Winning Bid
$24,000
Rs 14,64,000
(Inclusive of Buyer's Premium)
USD payment only.
Why?
ARTWORK DETAILS
Tallur L N
a) Dinosaur Egg; b) Export Design; c) Barter System
1999
Mixed media and wood
a) 39 x 12.5 x 15 in (99 x 31.7 x 38.1 cm) b) 11 x 12.5 x 13.5 in (27.9 x 31.7 x 34.3 cm) and 5.5 x 9 in (13.97 x 22.8 cm) c) 16.5 x 30.5 x 13.5 in (61.9 x 77.4 x 34.3 cm) and 7 x 9.5 in (17.7 x 24.1 cm)
This Lot consists of three installations that are placed in close proximity to each other a) Dinosaur Egg consists of a tall office cabinet that gradually reveals a story as we open each of the three drawers starting with a chicken egg, a fried egg and ending with text carved in stone stating, " TEMPORARILY REMOVED FOR RESTORATION" b) Export Design consists of a cabinet and stool. Centered on the inhuman business of kidney racketeering, this installation also references the export of butterflies and fur for experiments. The inner drawer of the cabinet reveals a kidney carved by wood cut method; the deliberate use of sharp tools underlining the violence of such a ‘business’ c) Barter System includes a low cabinet with a stool. Intended as an experiment and its result, the work encourages active experimentation on the part of the viewer, who can see the result of their engagement through a viewfinder
PROVENANCE: Acquired directly from the artist, 1999
EXHIBITED: 1999 Emerging Artist Award, Bose Pacia, New York, 1999
Category: Installation
Style: Figurative