Raised Eyebrow: Anant Joshi | Bikaner House

November 22 - 28, 2024

Raised Eyebrow
Anant Joshi
Anant Joshi invents a circus of the past: forms that populate his work act out stories of political upheaval and social turmoil in the country. He plunges us into this troubled world with the satire of a semi-cartoonist, semi-toymaker, and artist. Inhabiting multi-coloured interiors and boxed in by the edges of the canvas, Joshi’s figures reference found photographs, newspaper clippings and cartoons. His protagonists appear faceless, ghoul-like creatures, that dissolve into their psychedelic surroundings. The artist is reluctant to entirely reveal its intricacies repeatedly veiling his work using techniques of masking and camouflage that often divert the viewer.

He creates a surface alive with webs, intersected networks, and hidden beams of incredible colour, only to be disrupted by black dematerialised forms in their very centre; shifting our focus from the primary subject. Yet, a multitude of figures emerge from the layers, where forms forge to reveal themselves.

Tactical distractions, misinformation, and political strategies are natural subjects to him, and come to the fore again. Here a sense of history and longing is seen through the contemporary gaze.
What is mind-boggling about these works is the amount of labor that goes into their making. What lies below the visible surface is a painterly, colourful rendering of images, which are then painted upon with large (unrecognisable) blobs or gauche patterns that are an attempt to mask newspaper photographs. These resemble mirror landscapes where the entire painting is then layered upon with shiny gift-wrapping paper. The under colour is completely obliterated! While these blobs may be read as “blindspots”, titles often reveal what these images could be. These large abstract forms come from Klecksography* patterns that deter the viewer from direct interpretations.

We live in very particular times where censorship demands a very specific response. What the artist attempts to convey through the blips and beeps from media and the state that could amount to muting speakers or masking events with patches, turn into jokes, memes and images of resistance. No matter how many obstacles we may encounter, the only thing we have to avoid is a failure of will.

*Klecksography is the art of making images from inkblots
Anant Joshi is a newspaper devourer. With the information surfeit one gets today through all the various sources, the daily news from hard copy papers is the primary “feeder” to Joshi’s art practice.

The artist comes upon an almost comic episode of a common citizen from Madhya Pradesh who had filed an RTI (Right To Information) to the PMO’s office asking about the whereabouts of the original 3 Monkeys – a miniscule toy-like sculpture that was kept by Gandhi. The pursuant citizen Z was informed through his inquiry 3 years later, that the monkeys were (now) housed (as large sculptures) at Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad!

If one wonders about the ‘serious nature’ of such complaints, this episode was not lost on Joshi. It was possibly a trivial case of an even more trivial story, but loaded with irony.
The original statue that remained with Gandhi through his life – sited as an example to his million followers of “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” (but now gone missing) – has in fact become an ode to our times with its replicas floating in and around the various Gandhi ashrams. Making a parallel of Gandhi’s lost monkeys, Joshi’s sculpture titled ‘Missing - Flowers of the Wilderness’ is a beautifully crafted bronze version, veiled behind a more colourful counterpart made in fibreglass – creating his own story of the missing monkeys.
Once again, an image, forgettable to most, caught Joshi’s eye. A gathering of people around a registrar’s office table in Orissa, looking keenly for something; it turns out, it’s their names they are looking for.

Do they exist? Have they been obliterated?

Joshi cuts out the image and goes extremely close to the clothes they wear. He then punches out swatches that are mere microcosmic details, giving us a very close reading of colour, and loose threads that these images become after being viewed through a micro-lens. These abstractions which almost look like multicolored blobs of colour – gives some indication of its texture simply because of the fine threads. It is these images that are then put behind light boxes.

Once again, Joshi goes close to the bone – nuanced in its meaning – a fact once uttered (now among a hundred others)… “that people would be identified by the colour of clothes they would wear.”

We don’t need lists, we don’t need paperwork.

Joshi creates a work that spells it out – in all its glorified abstraction but makes us look at it through the lens of a light box; in fact exaggerating the intent of making this work.
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In the press

"Art becomes a catalyst for social change, a medium through which the artist communicates not only the complexities of political history but also a vision for a more

enlightened and informed society."

- Sonal Motla, Free Press Journal

Free Press Journal The Art Newspaper Condé Nast Traveller Art Asia Pacific Times of India The Indian Express
Anant Joshi

Artist Biography

b. 1969, in Nagpur, India

Anant Joshi, a Mumbai-based artist, critiques our culture of abundance through sculptures, paintings, and light boxes. His work is notable for its distinctive use of toys as an artistic medium. Although toys were absent from Joshi's own childhood, he now engages with them as an adult to explore how these seemingly trivial objects convey messages about power, perception, and reality. He views toys as potent instruments that enable children to shape their ideal world, serving as a form of cultural programming for future generations.

After earning his B.F.A. and M.F.A. in painting at Sir J.J. School of Art in 1996, Joshi received notable awards and residencies. In 1998, he undertook a residency at the Kanoria Centre for Arts in Ahmedabad. The following year, he was awarded the Bendre Hussain Scholarship by the Bombay Art Society and presented a solo exhibition entitled Mukhota Paintings at Chemould.