Membranes and Margins
In a metro city like Mumbai, human lives are divided into different classes through competitive consumption. Prajakta Potnis, in her works looks at this hierarchy as a ‘skin-soul disease’. Kanchi Mehta features the ideas behind Potnis’ new set of works presented at the Guild Gallery, Mumbai.
The walls of her studio were lined with enormous canvases cubically dissected in graphite into miniature concrete giants. They were all at eyelevel and I immediately experienced this bizarre feeling of dizziness and confusion based on the illusion of size. Each window on every storey had been given equal attention to detail with respect to line and color. Fine accurate lines and pale pastel colors intersected each other to speak the truth Potnis is attempting to convey. This was two months before the opening of her show.
Potnis has been observing the effects of societal pressure on the daily lives of the common man. Luxury has always been a lustful commodity to which people unknowingly become slaves. They misplace themselves over time to maintain their addiction to a certain lifestyle. “In a time when everything is about making dreams into realities my interest has been of interpreting those realities through its dreams…” It is almost a state of helplessness. A vicious circle. The age of Industrialization has brought with it this disease of greed that has evolved into a repulsive and infectious decay. As I entered The Guild Art Gallery, two adjacent walls that were clad with a printed vinyl sheet caught my attention. I looked at it for a few seconds to realize that the entire wall was the surface of a skin that was covered with ripe boils, some filled with vile pus, some with bright red rash around it. Thick hair sprouted uncomfortably through the boils and discoloration of the epidermis only added to the abhorrent sight. It was truly disgusting. Like a fibrous growth or a rotting fruit.
How true! I thought. In the real world, all our skins must look like this; we have conveniently chosen to wear a veil to hide this ugliness. We have accepted this hypothesis of life by reassuring ourselves that ‘this is the way it is.’ Born and raised in a vast metro like Mumbai, Potnis is one of the few million inhabitants who is witnessing this urban development affect the minds of its people.
Potnis’ earlier works have much relevance to this concept. Toys and utilitarian objects that are available in local markets became the protagonists in her works. These were commodities that people acquire to supplement their homes and waking lives, analyzing issues of possession and security. “…this process has led me to the recent series of works that are associated with the idea of selling dreams.” These mere objects proceed to create an identity and a sense of pride for an individual, which enables him to say, ‘this is Mine ‘ Thus awakens the Ego.
In the marginal difference between a House, and a Dream House, innumerable expectations and pressures invariably haunt the latter. The dream house is only a perception, a manifestation of ‘public emotions’. Certain societies that have set standards, expect all those who live within it to abide by them. “These gigantic proud structures stand tall in the urban landscape and are symbolic to the standards that are set by them. They judge the capacity or the success of an individual while the insecurities of being accepted or appreciated is left for the consumer middle class to deal with.” Even the works were installed in the Gallery as if one is walking from the inside to the outside, be it a home, a human body or even a massive skyscraper.
Potnis expresses this theory flawlessly. It is not a concept that is unheard of. The beauty lies in the way a single idea is proposed. The 1920’s in America brought about an art movement called Precisionism during the peak of World War I. Artists like Charles Sheeler, Charles Demuth, Elsie Driggs etc. were influenced strongly by Cubism and Futurism. Its primary theme included industrialization and the modernization of the American landscape, depicted in precise, sharply defined, geometrical forms. The degree of veneration for the industrial age in the movement reflects in Potnis’ works visually. However, the art movement focused primarily on the execution of the work rather than the social observations, which, undoubtedly is the strength in Potnis’ works.
In large cities, this intimidating architecture dominates the mindset of the inhabitants. It immediately demarcates the various economic strata within the society, giving rise to an Upper Class, a Middle Class and a Lower Class. With the former and latter being such extremes, it is the predominant middle class that suffers the life of sweat and pandemonium to sustain the living conditions. “There is created a porous separation between the inside and the outside world”. Potnis magnifies the unseen fortifications, which, like defense systems divide the insider from the outsider and raise questions of belonging and acceptance.
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