Images Attacked
A Klein invasion
'I write differently from what I speak, I speak differently from what I think, I think differently from the way I ought to think, and so it all proceeds into deepest darkness.' Franz Kafka
Nandan Ghiya is a generous artist, but he appears to take back almost as much as he gives. Or is that true? There is certainly give and take in his art, but is the artist trying to steal back his gift to us, or is some alien force coming down our computer screen and taking over? That is just scaremongering! I don't believe in creatures from outer space, but then I also want to challenge the 'sacred' belief passed down from Classical philosophers and many ancient religions that there is only one solution.
Nothing has ever been quite as it seems in Ghiya's work. He may use old photographs from Imperialist times, but he never presents them undiluted, uncorrupted. The images have invariably been attacked. Some aspect will be out of sync with the rest of the picture. It is not just the Raj he shows us, but changing identity. He is not just showing us the old world to contrast it with the present, as equally he is not directly concentrating on the conflict between cultures. As soon as the viewer gets comfortable with one perspective there is a shift.
