Important Notice

Trained as a sculptor, T. V. Santhosh held his first solo show of paintings in 2003. This canvas, from the same period, reflects the artist’s commitment to voicing his concerns about the precipice over which he believes our world dangerously teeters. As the critic Ranjit Hoskote explains, Santhosh’s “is an art attentive to the specific idioms of contemporary global conflict, to the diabolical pact between knowledge and terror, the skewed... Trained as a sculptor, T. V. Santhosh held his first solo show of paintings in 2003. This canvas, from the same period, reflects the artist’s commitment to voicing his concerns about the precipice over which he believes our world dangerously teeters. As the critic Ranjit Hoskote explains, Santhosh’s “is an art attentive to the specific idioms of contemporary global conflict, to the diabolical pact between knowledge and terror, the skewed antagonism between puissant globality and weakened locality” (“Transfigurations at the Margin of Blur: Recent Paintings by T V Santhosh” in One Hand Clapping / Siren, The Guild Gallery exhibition catalogue, 2003, unpaginated).

In this monochromatic canvas, Santhosh draws our attention to the practice of animal testing through the image of an overgrown lab rat encaged in what looks like a decorative wine glass. Here, the artist underscores the negative ways in which scientific developments are employed – from immoral personal advancement to the development of weapons of mass destruction. Whilst the wine glass draws attention to a dubiously close association between the scientific community and the socio-political elite, the hazy background with its destroyed buildings and distraught looking man forewarns about the detrimental consequences such a relationship may have.

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