Important Notice

Painted in 2004, the present lot examines the consequences of urbanisation on cultural and social customs. Making a commentary on the immersion of Ganesha after the festivities, Panda shows a lone Ganesha idol floating to the bottom of a dark sea. Flowers, ornaments and vestments are scattered around. The image is set against the backdrop of tower cranes, bullet trains and moving traffic: all symbols of progress. The contrast between tradition... Painted in 2004, the present lot examines the consequences of urbanisation on cultural and social customs. Making a commentary on the immersion of Ganesha after the festivities, Panda shows a lone Ganesha idol floating to the bottom of a dark sea. Flowers, ornaments and vestments are scattered around. The image is set against the backdrop of tower cranes, bullet trains and moving traffic: all symbols of progress. The contrast between tradition and modernity is made with a single powerful image in which Panda captures the poignancy of the clash. Panda has "... steadily constructed a language of alienation that is contained paradoxically within images of settlement, in small or large format, he works through the positioning of opposites, of the enforcing of structures, and the evacuation of life forms, of mythic cycles and contemporary time, of value and its imminent loss." (Gayatri Sinha, Recent Works by Jagannath Panda, London: Saffronart and Berkeley Square Gallery, 2006)

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