JAGANNATH PANDA (B. 1970)

As a resident of New Delhi's fast growing suburb, Gurgaon, Jagannath Panda addresses his own anxieties of displacement and alienation in his paintings and collages. In this painting, we see a large Shamiana (tent) enclosing and demarcating a space for festivities in a somewhat desolate field. The pattern on the tent recalling the delicate applique work created in the city of Pipli, near his area of birth in Orissa. While the festivities continue within their enclosed space, a freshly butchered animal lies bleeding in open field creating a feeling of unrest and malevolence in this otherwise ordinary landscape.

Our culture as you know has mythologized animals - they are invested with qualities and characteristics that we actually see in people around us - distinctive characteristics - like the crow is considered clever or selfish... I think basically there's duality in human nature that comes through, in fact I feel that the animals are characters in themselves. They are also affected by the changes around us and their behavior reflects the basic animal instincts at play, in some way they stand for humans in my works and they somehow become remythologized. (Jagannath Panda in conversation with Brinda Kumar: ed. Gayatri Sinha, Voices of Change - 20 Indian Artists, The Marg Foundation, Mumbai, 2010)