Artist Ranjan Kaul draws upon social threads to explore themes of absence, identity in solo show

New Delhi, Sep 24 (PTI) Scenes of child abduction, identity erasure, sexual assault and exploitation play out on artist Ranjan Kaul’s paintings, woodcut prints, collages, and sculptures in an exploration of identity and absence in his sixth solo exhibition here.

The exhibition, titled “Within, Without: Tales of Evanescence”, draws upon social, psychological, criminal, and political threads that Kaul often pulls out from true incidents that mark the stark realities of contemporary society.

Inspired by newspaper classifieds of missing people and stories of real-world disappearances, Kaul’s latest body of work engages deeply with humanitarian concerns, ranging from victims of sex and organ trafficking to migrants and children lost in conflict zones, to voluntary and enforced disappearances.

Kaul deploys multiple devices and visual languages for his art, including poetry, metaphor and animals and birds as symbols, who act as quiet witnesses in the layered stories of survival, disappearance, and imagined reclamation.

“As in all my work, this exhibition reflects my intense engagement with humanitarian themes that touch my sensibilities. Revolving primarily around missing persons, the visual narratives and portraits in the show explore the many facets of existence, identity and obscurity. While there is diversity in my art, there is an underlying singular, personalised aesthetic in relation to the use of form, texture and the colour palette” Kaul said.

While “Leaving Home” portrays a mother and daughter fleeing domestic violence, “The Red Room” is an arresting collage tracing a girl’s journey from abduction to sexual exploitation.

Another of his works, “A New Identity”, is a collage of a tormented sex worker escaping a brothel, and seeking renewal in the face of erasure.

“Pouring over newspaper reports and data gleaned from news agencies, Kaul has made missing people his subject for some years now. He has gathered yet more reason to express his deep empathy and helplessness for the plight of the victims who have had to face the harshest trials and tribulations for no fault of theirs,” curatorial advisor Ina Puri said.

She added that by layering his compositions with symbolism, metaphor and allegory, Kaul “pays homage to the many who have gone missing but remain unforgotten by those they have left behind, especially the artist himself”.

A few other works delve into broader socio-political terrains both within the country and outside, where conflicts render identities ephemeral.

“Cataclysm in Sudan” puts forward stories of survival and desperation against the backdrop of the ongoing civil war between the poverty-struck country’s two military factions, where women are compelled to offer their bodies.

The exhibition, which came to a close on September 23 at Bikaner House, will now be showcased at Urban Fringe in Okhla from September 27 to October 5. PTI MAH MAH MAH