Concerns of Jehangir Jani

Stories….

This exhibition is an attempt to capture the human spirit through figurative sculpture.

My concern has largely been the human body and my enquiry into the dynamics of existence. The real body has the capacity to express large truths - of dignity, of pain, of survival of the self, this despite the trauma and anxieties which life is fraught with.

Desire drives one to the quest of a fulfillment in the other. I weave these into stories because it allows me to make visible negotiations form the realm of desire to the realm of the flesh, undeniably physical and palpable.

This journey which desire accelerates can lead to either it's thwarting. History illustrates innumerable instances of the latter, acceptance of the pain with grace or violent, horrific reactions.

In my earlier works I wove the question of myth and time to speak about some universal truth which are often accompanied by the notion of fanaticism and authoritarianism.

My concerns in the present works deal with an individual journey form desire through pain to survival. Besides there had been a shift in the working process. Earlier I modeled in clay, and fired the work itself. Due to limitations of scale, I have used fiberglass necessitating the use of moulds, thereby involving a process of translation form the original clay body.

I see the body as a possible site for celebration, of utopia. To imbue the body with a sense of preciousness I have covered the figures with silver and gold leaf.

In two of my works, 'PASSION' and 'Agony", I have used the device of fragmentation and mutilation. 'PASSION' is about the desiring body but it bears the scars of disapproval. 'AGONY' is an attempt to represent pain - suffering of the corporeal self.

In 'SEVEN STATIONS' I have used the abstract formal devices in relief. They are marker of time for different stages of the journey.

In 'SURVIVOR (a continuum)' there is implicit, a bid for a utopian possibility, a triumph of the human being overcoming the travails of the journey with dignity and integrity.

As I see it, I feel myself moving from the private to the public arena, the larger situation, of giving a face to the faceless multitude of the invisible.

Jehangir Jani, November 2000