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Lot 61

 

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One of the 'theatrical' devices that Surendran 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. As Ranjit Hoskote understands it, "Nair regards painting as no less interactive a medium than the installation or the digital interface: a coded yet inviting communication around which artist and viewer choreograph a productive dialogue.... One of the 'theatrical' devices that Surendran 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. As Ranjit Hoskote understands it, "Nair regards painting as no less interactive a medium than the installation or the digital interface: a coded yet inviting communication around which artist and viewer choreograph a productive dialogue. 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, such as 'I beg your pardon: the scorpion act II - an actor meditating on a character of an imaginary play (Cuckoonebulopolis, 2002)', function in this manner" ("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, an early canvas from Nair's Cuckoonebulopolis series, the artist offers the figure of a partially made-up actor in profile, wearing a strap-on scorpion's tail, and strung with flowers and bells. He has pricked his little finger with his 'tail', perhaps a reference to the legend that scorpions, when faced with imminent danger, follow the principle of hara-kiri and sting themselves to death rather than submit their lives to external aggressors.

Speaking about this painting, Chaitanya Sambrani observes, "Here, the nude male actor is placed in an intermediate space bordered seemingly by the arcades of Rajasthani architecture, staring into infinity even as he pricks his own finger on the barb of a costume/contraption representing the scorpion's tail. 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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