Deceptive Perception

DECEPTIVE PERCEPTION Solo show by
SACHIN GEORGE SEBASTIAN, Delhi, India

"We live in an ocean of chaos, watching hope floating afar near the horizon. Once you reach the place of hope, you see that chaos exists there too. We move from place to place wading through chaos."
- Sachin George Sebastian
In "Deceptive Perception" the New Delhi based artist Sachin George Sebastian looks into the allure of the metropolis, which gives false promises of a chaos free life through the structure of the urban grid. Using intricately cut and folded paper, which shows the often-overlooked fragility of civilizations, the artist tries to showcase the deceptive notion of the metropolis being a beacon of hope, and showing the metropolis's power to drain individual identities as citizens are shaped to face the needs of the urban city.
When floating in an ocean of chaos, the individual becomes inseparable from the thousands of individuals around him. A lack of identity and the search for it are common themes in contemporary society. Using newspaper, the artist represents people from all backgrounds, who are all drawn to and affected by the deception of the urban dream and glossy promises of new development. The viewer has to walk through Sebastian's chaotic ocean of "people" made from newspaper in order to experience the exhibition and see the central work "In the ocean of Chaos". People step all over each other in order to keep afloat in the growing metropolises of the world.
In the first room of the gallery, a fallen man with wings struggles to rise under the weight of the metropolis, which at one point had given him the power to fly. While the man is gifted with wings, he must migrate from city to city in order to survive and the weight of the journey grounds him. The journey makes him fragile and weak, and consumes his energy. The wings hold their glory, but the Icarus-like figures wearing them crumble under the weight of the "Monstrocity".

- Text by Diana Campbell Betancourt