MillenniumPost
Features

Humans have lost balance: Reji Arackal

The hybrid reality of our society, man's likeliness for violence, and his tendency to control every living thing came to the forefront with the opening of the solo exhibition of Indian Contemporary artist Reji Arackal's life-sized artworks at Alliance Française de Delhi on March 14.

Organised in collaboration with The Raza Foundation, the exhibition is the second in the 'Back from France' series which holds two solo exhibitions of two different artists every year in order to provide a platform to deserving young Indian artists who have returned from France after a stay of more than six months and now continue their practice in India.

"Well-known for his non-conformity and diverse interests, Reji Arackal's colossal, god-like superhuman figures are a result of a study of form. The 'out of line' superhuman become a platform for dangerous speech, human desire, appetite and unruliness and a symbol of moral and ethical decay in his compositions. As a catalyst for social change, Arackal draws from a variety of sources to expose the heresies of disenchantment, exploitation and persecution," Shruthi Issac, Curator of the exhibition titled 'Living Outlines' said as she explained the idea behind the artist's works.

Talking about his work displayed at the exhibition, the artist said: "Humans always consider themselves as sophisticated and advanced. But my understanding is that we are like bugs trying to control every living thing on earth. We convert living, thriving habitats into artificial, dead spaces. We are no longer able to differentiate between what is precious and living and what is artificial. Humans, the most dominating being on earth act like Gods. We behave as if we are superhuman. But we have already lost our basic skills of survival. We have lost balance."

One of his works from 2009, titled 'Hybrid Reality', explores the metaphor of an alternate actuality wherein the human society is a production factory. In another one of his works, titled 'The hunter or Mirror image', Arackal comments on man's penchant for violence.

The exhibition, featuring seven seminal works of Arackal will be on display at Alliance Française de Delhi's Gallerie Romain Rolland until March 28, 2019.

Next Story
Share it