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The Saatchi Gallery in partnership with Phillips de Pury & Company

THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK: INDIAN ART TODAY

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The Saatchi Gallery in partnership with Phillips de Pury & Company

THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK:Indian Art Today

Gallery 1

Jitish Kallat Public Notice 2 20074,479 fibreglass sculptures dimensions variable

Public Notice 2 recalls the historic speech delivered by MahatmaGandhi, on the eve of the epic Salt March to Dandi, in early 1930 as aprotest against the salt tax instituted by the British. Through this speechhe lays down the codes of conduct for his fellow revolutionaries, callingfor complete civil disobedience, the only fierce restriction being that ofmaintaining ‘total peace’ and ‘absolute non-violence’. In Kallat’s work,Gandhi’s ardent speech is recreated as a haunting installation witharound 4500 bone shaped alphabets recalling a turning point in thenation’s history. Each alphabet, like a misplaced relic, holds up theimage of violence even as their collective chorus makes a plea forpeace to a world plagued with aggression.

Bharti Kher Hungry Dogs Eat Dirty Pudding 2004Fibreglass and plastic 40 x 100 x 125 cm

Relocating to New Delhi after studying art in Newcastle, England,Bharti Kher is an artist committed to exploring cultural misunderstand-ings and social codes through her art practice. Likening herself to thewell intentioned ethnographer investigating her culture, Kher delivers avery forceful reinterpretation of modern India. In Hungry dogs Eat DirtyPudding, a domestic hoover is covered in garish animal skins. Theseare the kind of inventive hybrid creations that Bharti Kher has made herown. Evoking the early work of Swiss artist Méret Oppenheim whocovered a teacup, saucer and spoon with fur, Kher’s sculptural worksappear incredibly surreal in their construction.

Bharti Kher An Absence Of Assignable Cause 2007Bindis on fibreglass 168 x 308 x 150 cm

In part inspired by artists such as Hieronymus Bosch, Francisco Goyaand William Blake, Bharti Kher references magical beasts, mythicalmonsters and allegorical tales in which they might feature in her work.The blue sperm whale is one of the world’s largest animals. Unable tofind sufficient scientific documentation about its anatomy, Kher inventedthe appearance of the whale’s heart for An Absence of AssignableCause. Created in fibreglass, the artist has decorated the enormousheart and protruding veins and arteries with different coloured bindis.

Atul DodiyaFool’s House 2009Oil, acrylic with marble dust and charcoal on canvas 243.8 x 152.4 cm

Through his paintings and assemblages, Atul Dodiya engages withboth political and art history in a way that entwines global/publicmemory and local/personal experience. In his most recent series ofpaintings Dodiya appropriates the images and styles of famous art-works. By doing this he pays homage to his influences, but also‘borrows’ their identities through a kind of painting role-play: copyingbecomes a form of ‘channelling’ or re-enactment, weaving the master’sidentities and ideas to Dodiya’s own (and vice versa).

Fool’s House is a tribute to Jasper Johns, the American pop artistrenowned for painting generic graphic motifs such as targets, mapsand text fonts. The fragmented composition of this painting – dividedinto rectangular shapes – references the design typical of Johns; thesegments of the canvas contain quotes of a Johns map and target.Dodiya first came to prominence with his paintings done on roll downsecurity shutters, and in this work he imprints his own history upon hishero’s, re-conceiving Johns’s international abstraction as a local shopfront. The ‘taped photographs’ in the scene make reference to Johns’s1984 painting Racing Thoughts which used this device to quip famousartworks such as the Mona Lisa; in Fool’s House, one of Dodiya’s snapshots contains an image of Man Ray’s Cadeau, emphasising hispainting as an offering or gift.

Gallery 2

Atul DodiyaPortrait Of Niko Pirosmani (1862-1918) 2005Enamel paint on laminate board, cotton kurta and cotton pyjamason iron hangers 183 x 122 cm

In Portrait of Niko Pirosmani (1862-1918) Dodiya portrays theGeorgian primitivist Niko Pirosmani, who was revered for having in-vented a new technique of painting during periods of solitude andpoverty. The portrait of Pirosmani initially formed part of Dodiya’s largescale exhibition ‘Shri Khakhar Prasanna’ which was dedicated to hisfriend, the late painter Bhupen Khakhar. Believing that Khakhar was in-fluenced by Pirosmani, Dodiya wanted to include the Georgian painterin his show. The artist uses found objects such as the cotton Kurta andpyjamas which hang over this painting. Here they are dyed a differentcolour in tribute to Khakhar, who dyed his kurta pyjamas black so hecould wear them as an apron in his studio.

Atul Dodiya Woman From Kabul 2001Acrylic and marble dust on fabric 183 x 122 cm

Woman from Kabul is a work about living in Afghanistan at the turn ofthe new millennium. The artist recalls a country rich in history and re-sources that has collapsed under the weight of war. A figure of anelderly woman, stripped of most of her black burka, squats over a verydecorative backdrop of wall paper. Her body is revealed as skin andbones, representative of the oppression and squalor that has becomeendemic of the city. Dodiya’s work is a potent reminder of the plight ofthe refugee.

Reena Saini KallatPenumbra Passage (Canine Cases) 2006Acrylic on canvas, bonded marble, wooden box, stainless steel,velvet, glass Canvas: 135 x 90 cm Steel stand 38 x 122 x 78 cm

Penumbra Passage (Canine Cases) comprises of a series of por-traits of ordinary civilians from both India as well as Pakistan, theirfaces blemished by the silhouette of the disputed territory often referred to as Pakistan Occupied Kashmir. While the portraits areput in grand frames like those of royal descendants, the map of theland that remains at the core of the dispute between the two neigh-boring countries, casts a shadow on these portraits haunting uswith tales from the region. The corresponding cases carry a rangeof weapons that appear more like museum relics, however oncloser observation one finds that they are highly embellished withlife affirming forms. Comprising a set of 32 pieces they collectivelyevoke human dentures, resonating with images of the conflict-ridden region.

Gallery 3

Huma BhabhaThe Orientalist 2007Bronze 177.8 x 83.8 x 104.1 cm

Bhabha’s The Orientalist conveys ideas of exoticism, difference, andotherness. Equally primitive and futuristic, Bhabha’s figure theatricallyposes as an ominous king or deity. Cast in bronze, it sits as an imposing relic from a fictional history, a regal air emanating from its pol-ished geometric armour, molten death mask, and ethereal chicken wireveil. Humanised through exaggerated hands and feet and sympatheticcartoon styling, its powers waver between the comically surreal andportentously intimidating, drawing narrative suggestion from the loadedclichés of late night science fiction and horror movies.

Huma BhabhaMan Of No Importance 2006Clay, wire, wood, bones, iron, cotton, fabric, glass165.1 x 104.1 x 76.2 cm

One of the ideals in modernist sculpture was that materials shouldrefute illusionary form: rather than trying to ‘trick’ the viewer into believing that metal or clay might actually be flesh or hair, it was thoughtthat materials should resemble themselves and be material-like.Bhabha draws upon these notions in a contemporary way. Man of NoImportance exposes the exact methods of its construction, and theworn and brutal qualities of the materials give the sculpture an aura ofancient ritual and reverence. In Bhabha’s work, however, this ‘hal-lowedness’ is used to humorous effect as her mythological character,made from bits of scrap, becomes the physical embodiment of impov-erishment, temporality, and ideological failure.

Huma BhabhaWaiting For A Friend 2003Threaded steel rod, Styrofoam, wood, clay, paint231.1 x 71.1 x 45.7 cm

Approaching sculpture as a form of abjection, Huma Bhabha usesfound materials combined with moulded components to create an aesthetic that’s equally industrial and barbaric. Using the rough hewntactility of her materials, Bhabha’s work exudes a fragile sensibility;their underlying fictions of lost utopia wittily mirror contemporaryanxiety. Bhabha’s Waiting For A Friend towers as a dejected fertilitytotem. Lingering lonely against the gallery wall, its archaic form swellswith expectation: plaster and wax thighs bulging, head exaggeratedlyerect, spilled guts on full display.

Huma BhabhaMuseum Without Walls 2005Clay, wire, wood, styrofoam 89 x 63.5 x 86.4 cm

Humorously referencing both tribal masks and modernism, HumaBhabha’s Museum Without Walls presents the anatomy of a sculptureas voodoo construction. Using the traditional materials of sculpturalmoulding Bhabha constructs a skeleton of process, her formalist as-semblage doubling as anthropomorphic entity. Laying bare her mediaand their function, Bhabha infuses her work with suggestive narratives.Museum Without Walls stands as both totem and architectural model,creating a contemporary primitivism from cultural refuse.

Huma BhabhaSell The House 2006Mixed media 139.7 x 96.5 x 71.1 cm

Central to Bhabha’s work is the idea that materials embody a kind ofmysticism or power that can be activated or enhanced through theartist’s handling. Sell The House is a small sculpture made to the scaleof architectural models or museum relics. Assembled from constructionstaples such as wood and bricks the body of her sculpture acts as a‘foundation’ for embellishment. Utilising the aged and weathered quali-ties of her materials, Bhabha heightens their totemic connotations byadding clay to create an animistic form or mask. The ‘unfinished’ appearance of the sculpture both exposes the artist’s process ofmaking and the materiality of the construction, framing these as some-thing cryptic, compelling, and haunting.

Huma BhabhaUntitled Drawing 2007Watercolour, pastel, pencil, ink on paper, mounted on board40.4 x 30.4 cm

Bhabha’s Untitled Drawing approaches drawing with the physical sen-sibility of sculpture. Mounted on board, the image is made more‘object-like’ than if it were simply on paper. Bhabha uses a variety ofmedia, each imparting their own distinct ‘feel’ and texture: indeliblestains of watercolour suggest a poetic fragility underlying thick layersof greasy pastel, opaque ink washes, and gritty graphite residue.Bhabha’s physical process of drawing becomes enhanced through theearthy hues which record the evolution of the piece with a rough,organic aesthetic. The strong contrast of light and dark tones creates adeceptive spatial illusion; the abstract image, reminiscent of a mask,emerges with the three dimensional intensity of sculptural relief.

Huma BhabhaUntitled 2006Clay, wire, plastic, paint 114.3 x 243.8 x 152.4 cm

Working with found materials and constructed forms, Huma Bhabhareworks the familiarity of everyday objects into creepy inventions.Something between a primitive species and space alien, her Untitled isboth ghastly and sympathetic. Set atop an altar-like plinth, Bhabha’sfigure prostrates in submissive position. Shrouded in black, hands out-stretched as if in prayer, it echoes humility and reverence; its aura ofcalm perversely interrupted by a rigid tail trailing out from behind.

T VenkannaDream In Dream 2007Oil on Canvas 153 x 259 cm (Diptych)

From his studio in Baroda, Venkanna remakes two works ofFrench painter Henri Rousseau, famed for his fantastical illustra-tions of jungle scenes and botanical gardens. Rousseau waschastised and then celebrated for his imaginative escapism andearly primitive style in Paris. The political and social context ofworks Venkanna references are quite different from when theywere made. He re-interprets these imageries and in the processcritically evaluates the norms existing within contemporary society.

Dream in Dream is appropriated from Rousseau’s 1910 paintingtitled The Dream. The historical significance of this work is not loston Venkanna as he intentionally renders it as a post-modern imagewith idiosyncratic undertones. In this work, Venkanna replaces thewoman from Rousseau’s original with a nude self-portrait. In thesecond panel Rousseau’s verdant jungle becomes animated inVenkanna’s hands. Turned on its side, the thin canvas takes thesame subject but satirises it using cartoons to the point where thepanel becomes garish.

T VenkannaTwo Moon 2007Oil on canvas 213 x 153 cm

Two Moon is based on an original work by Rousseau entitled TheSleeping Gypsy 1897. In his second canvas from the seriesVenkanna has taken the original scene from Rousseau’s paintingand duplicated it as a repetition of the motifs within the paintingitself. With very deliberate alterations to his canvas, Venkanna’ssleeping gypsy is both alive and dead, as he paints in a skeletonwhere Rousseau had painted a resting figure in multi-coloureddress. Venkanna’s figure brims with unrequited and unfulfilled lust.The black moon painted below is a sinister twin of Rousseau’spaler one, and symbolizes the tragedy of the figure’s former life.Although his body has turned skeletal in death, his penis, socharged with desire, stays alive with lust and remains fleshly, erectand blackened. The painting also resembles post-war Americanpainting styles due to the additional red arrows on the surface ofthe canvas, crudely labeling the edge of the work.

Gallery 4

Huma MuljiArabian Delight 2008Rexine suitcase, taxidermy camel, metal rods, wood, cotton wool,fabric 105 x 144 x 155 cm (open with lid)

Pakistani born Huma Mulji’s works explore ideas of displacement. Herpreoccupation with cultural difference takes her away from India andPakistan toward the Middle East and other landscapes. This juncturebetween tradition and the relentless modern thrust across India andPakistan is where Mulji occupies herself with deliberate humour.Arabian Delight, a taxidermied camel forced into a battered suitcase,addresses ideas of the relocation of cultures. The rather crazedmanner in which the collapsed camel is impossibly forced into this suit-case, legs thrown in disarray, is a humorous comment on the perceived‘Arabisation’ of Pakistan as another Muslim state.

Huma MuljiHer Suburban Dream 2009Mixed media 99 x 330.2 x 76.2 cm

In a similar vein, Mulji’s most recent work titled Her Suburban Dreaminvolves another taxidermied animal shown in an unexpected situation.The concrete water pipe has forced the cow in Her Suburban Dreaminto an unnatural and somewhat degrading position at the mercy of hu-manity. These compelling works explore change and disorder in theregion and beyond.

Rajan KrishnanSubstances Of Earth 2007Acrylic on canvas 274 x 366 cm

Rajan Krishnan’s painted works depict a reclaimed earth after humanity has abandoned it. His series of paintings pay attention tothe changing landscape, as man-made settings are occupied andthen deserted in the pursuit of something better. Krishnan’sSubstances of Earth is a colossal acrylic painting that offers a dullpalette and stylised forms. Recalling part of the grand-canyon, thedetail shows a vast landmark taken over by animated insects. Thesurface appears overwhelmed by these creatures covering thelandscape. Boulders of rock appear to resemble a carcass laid outon the face of the mountain.

Shezad DawoodThe Judge 2007Neon, tumbleweed with enamelled aluminium plinth

The neon works reject the rhetoric of a clash of civilisations,looking at a formal synthesis between East and West. Dawood’sworks deliver a very complex set of notions that arise fromsymbols that are inherent to the two cultures that Dawood is familiar with.

Shezad DawoodThe Majestic 2007Neon, tumbleweed with enamelled aluminium plinth

Dawood describes his attempt to formally represent notions of thedivine as strongly as he represents something of the formlessnessand abstraction at the heart of modern America. The dishevelledtumble-weed balls that are anchored into each plinth exist assymbols of time. The sculptures also reference the history of theAmerican West, acknowledging the rise of a new kind of social religion embedded in bold patriotism.

T.V. SanthoshTracing An Ancient Error 2007Oil on canvas 122 x 183 cm

Employing the themes of war and global terrorism, South Indianartist T.V. Santhosh paints in lurid greens and shocking orange,recreating the effect of a colour photographic negative. The artistcharges his large canvases with figures in contoured and compro-mising positions. Like many of his politically motivatedcontemporaries, Santhosh lifts pivotal episodes from recent historyand renegotiates their appearance with a shock-bulb of violentenergy that eclipses the work. Santhosh’s paintings of impendingdoom, a world at the brink of an atomic end, are intentionally moreapocalyptic than cathartic. Tracing an Ancient Error is an illumi-nated work of what appears to be a bearded man lain out,revealing his chest, holding onto something resembling a thread.An image from recent news events, Santhosh captures this sceneand reinvents its value as a piece of anonymous and chargedhistory.

Shezad DawoodThe Bestower 2007Neon, tumbleweed with enamelled aluminium plinth

London based artist Shezad Dawood’s British and Pakistani rootsare reflected in his works. Appropriating many of his ideas frommodern European and American aesthetics, Dawood generates a critical examination of identity. This series of sculptures aremade of neon, entangled in tumbleweed and placed on aluminiumplinths. The Bestower, The Protector, The Judge and The Majestic,utilise traditional scripts that radiate from the centre of a ball oftumble-weed, reflecting an element of the divine.

Tushar JoagThe Enlightening Army Of The Empire 2008Installation comprising 16 figures, perspex, plastic, brass, mildsteel, wood, electric bulbs, wire and mixed media. Figure size:approximately 183 x 49 x 61 cm each

Tushar Joag is an interventionist and inventor of mock corporateidentities. He takes a satirical look at the urban classes and suggests that art is responsible for maintaining cultural continuity.This rhetoric leads him to conceive of unicell, a corporate body of one, that mimics many of the absurdities of government bureaucracy in a continent reliant upon social and political solu-tions. The Enlightening Army of the Empire is an installationcomprising sixteen robot style figures that are animated by electricbulbs and stop lights. This Disney styled army of dishevelledrobots appear to stand to attention holding florescent tube lights aspossible weapons against human kind. Each individual robot iscrafted with a subtly styled, quirky personality. Each of Joag’s steelfigures stands loosely to attention, as their individual light configu-rations illuminate their location and tangled wires join their feetcollectively.

Gallery 5

Shezad DawoodThe Protector 2007Neon, tumbleweed with enamelled aluminium plinth

Each of Shezad Dawood’s neon works reflects the artist’s interestin the ninety-nine beautiful names of God. Each attributed to Allah;the objective nouns are intended to describe every single aspect ofthe divine. Dawood’s neon works examine Islam as well as thedoctrine of the early American frontier, since both grand ideolo-gieswere born of similarly dry and desolate surroundings.

Gallery 6

Probir GuptaRats And Generals In A Zoological Park 2007Acrylic and oxides on canvas 229 x 448 cm

Probir Gupta’s canvases are enormous in their scale and narrative.A Kolkata art student during the Maoist uprising in India in theearly 1970’s, Gupta demonstrated against routine acts of violenceand terrorism. Gupta’s paintings appear as grand history paintings,containing intricate details and pulsating backgrounds. In Rats andGenerals in a Zoological Park, a sombre looking full-length portraitof Mahatma Gandhi stands robust in front of a coloured version ofthe Bayeux tapestry. Throughout the work, contoured figures andmorose forms riddle the canvas. With his works, Gupta reorgan-ises history into something messy, troubling and rueful. Nothingappears to take precedence.

Probir GuptaFree Passage 2007Acrylic and iron oxides on canvas 226 x 396 cm

Free Passage has been likened to Pablo Picasso’s 1937 paintingGuernica. Gupta’s somber figures are depicted in black and white,with the words free passage painted across the canvas in Urdu.The inverted head of the statue of Liberty, camouflaged in armyfatigue, emerges from what appears to be a pelvic region to theright of the canvas, as if in birth. The black and white figurespossess a theatrical quality; they are shown witnessing the birthof an era of intolerance and violence. The forms, appear on thebrink of dissolving, as colour disappears from the foreground andbecomes rooted into the distance.

Probir GuptaAnxiety Of The Unfamiliar 2006Acrylic and iron oxides on canvas 268 x 398 cm

In Anxiety of the Unfamiliar Gupta’s figures appear to have trans-formed into beetles laid out as dreadful corpses. Man, machineand insect intertwine into incomprehensible forms resemblingscenes from Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. Beneath thesegrotesque figures are a series of miniature negative portraits ofmen at the epicentre of significant episodes in India’s politicallycharged history.

Probir GuptaThe Bene Israel Family 2006Acrylic and iron oxides on canvas 229 x 396 cm

Gupta’s portrait of the Bene Israel Family is a thoroughly engagingexamination of the past. The Bene Israel were a group of Jewishemigrants, who settled in Cochin, in the southern part of the Indiansub continent, at the turn of the century. Research indicates thatthe Bene Israeli community soon rose to prominence and thrived inthe Indian sub continent, at a time when Jewish communities facedpersecution in Europe. In Gupta’s painting, the distorted back-ground draws on the history of the Holocaust, whilst the BeneIsrael Family emerges from this background in indigenous attire,as native Indians of the subcontinent. This work displays theartist’s ongoing examination of identity and social history.

T.V. SanthoshStitching An Undefined Border 2007Oil on canvas 122 x 183 cm

Santhosh has switched positive for negative colours in this work.An aged man appears to be operating a machine in a confinedspace, standing tall against the projector on a table. The artistriddles the surface with wisps of illuminated light that fall over theimage like uncontrollable energy or an explosive force. Santhoshoften borrows from news images in his works but in representingthem through negative colours, suggests otherwise hidden impli-cations to be surmised.

Jaishri AbichandaniAllah O Akbar 2008Leather whip, wire, paint, Swarovski crystals 65 x 450 cm

Allah O Akbar is created from black whips, painted in green andred and mounted against a white wall. The work incorporates thecolours of the Iraqi flag (green, red, black and white) and also usesthe same Kufic script to recreate the phrase or takbir used on theflag and recited by many Muslims. Literally translated the wordsmean ‘God is Great’, but as an American opposed to the war inIraq, Abichandani references recent political violence unleashed inthe country, by using leather whips and Swarovski crystals to formthis phrase.

Tallur L.N.Untitled 2007Inflatable bed, silicon, latex rubber, medical cot and forceps 275 x 280 x 160 cm

Bangalore born Tallur is an Indian artist who has rarely venturedoutside India and grew up in the rural community. His works speakof the grinding poverty in the cultivated countryside. EmployingIndian signs and symbols, Tallur conceives works that are charac-teristic of the underbelly of India, while still successfully managingto translate the anxiety of his subject matter to a larger audience.Untitled contains a hospital bed, with battered and torn bronzemattresses piled high. Tallur’s work delivers an incredibly de-pressing sight and sign of the objects of social utilitarianism. Hissculptural works are riddled with the agony of laboured situations.For the artist, there is a pleasurable absurdity in the dishevelledtraditions of the farmlands and the villages when compared to thenew American-styled hyper-real cities that function as cash accu-mulators.

Jitish KallatDeath Of Distance 2007Black lead on fibreglass, a rupee coin and five lenticular printsSculpture 161 cm diameter, prints 46 x 60 cm

In Death of Distance five lenticular prints bring together contrastingexperiences of living in India today. Each of the panels highlighttwo divergent news stories; the launch of ‘one rupee a minute’ tele-phone rates across India and a disturbing story of a girl whocommitted suicide because her mother couldn’t afford the onerupee she wanted for a school lunch. A rigid rupee coin is bal-anced on the gallery floor, while the two narratives flip andinterchange depending on the position of the viewer.

Jitish KallatRickshawpolis 4 2006Acrylic on canvas with bronze gargoyles 178 x 274 cm

Rickshawpolis 4 is like a vast collision portrait of a thumping,claustrophobic city-street. The vehicles collide on the face of thecanvas like a mushroomed explosion; battered vehicles are inter-mingled with figures that appear to negotiate a way through thischaos and calamity. The painting itself is mounted on bronzesculptures that are re-creations of gargoyles that are found atopthe 120 year old Victoria Terminus Building in the center ofMumbai.

Gallery 7

Kriti AroraCoat And Trousers 2008Fibreglass, cloth and tar 153 x 102 cm

Blackened coats and heavy trousers operate as the residual skinsof the people employed to build the road-sides. These fibres, orig-inally coloured and textured, appear stiff and impossible to use asthey are drenched in tar. Hung out to dry by the artist, the tar is toothick to remove, alluding to the combined and inseparable natureof the men and their labour.

Kriti AroraTar Man 5 2008Fibreglass and tar 176 x 72 x 63 cm

Tar Man 5, is a sculpture informed by the working men that Aroraencountered along mountain routes through Kashmir. For Arora,roads are the social arteries that connect this region to the rest ofthe sub-continent. The struggling allegiance of men working tire-lessly to re-cultivate the land for profitable redevelopment is thesubject of her investigations. Unlike classical Indian statues ormodelled deities, these very ordinary men are covered from headto toe in a suffocating layer of black tar as a demonstration of thealmost incomprehensible work that is required to change India.The tar-man is emblematic of a continent seeking social and polit-ical change.

Kriti AroraTar Man 6 2008Fibreglass and tar 185 x 76 x 97 cm

Tar Man 6 is a mummification of one of the working men thatstruggle through the war-torn landscape of Kashmir. The routinewith which they go about their laboured work in extremes temper-atures is testament to the will of the people to contribute tochange. Arora’s figure appears rooted to the spot, coated in a thickskin of tar smothering his ability to show any expression. The artistis examining the generation of men working on the road side, as-signed to the difficult task of reconstruction and repair.

Kriti AroraTools And Boots 2008Fibreglass, cloth and tar 130 x 120 cm

Continuing her preoccupation with labour, Tools and Boots 2008contains tools of the trade, organised and arranged to bring somesemblance of order to the brutal task that lies ahead of these indi-viduals. Black shovels, pick-axes and gloves are all coated withthick tar. The installation appears to be consumed by this material,used to coat the roads and level the arteries of the mountains forthe vehicles that thread through. The inanimate objects in Toolsand Boots have been organised as one might arrange a still-life,which highlights the humanity that is missing from them. Theyserve no purpose without the army of men routinely utilizing themon cliff-faces and road-sides.

Gallery 8

Subodh GuptaSpill 2007Stainless steel and stainless steel utensils 170 x 145 x 95 cm

Subodh Gupta employs many of the original techniques of Frenchconceptualist Marcel Duchamp by elevating the ready-made intoan art object. Gupta chooses signature objects of the Indian sub-continent and relocates them as art objects in monumentalinstallations of stainless steel and tiffin-tins. Spill is an overbearingwork of great scale that has at its centre a larger than life stainlesssteel water vessel, with many smaller steel utensils spilling overthe edge like water pouring out.

Subodh GuptaU.F.O 2007Brass utensils 114 x 305 x 305 cm

U.F.O is another work made up of hundreds of brass water utensilsthat are soldered together to resemble a flying saucer. Thisgleaming sculpture is amusing yet pertinent to ideas of sustain-ability, poverty and notions of otherness. The repetition of formsand the exaggeration of scale is a common element in Gupta’swork.

Subodh GuptaStill Steal Steel #1 2007Oil and enamel on canvas 198 x 366 cm

Gupta’s painting Still Steal Steel is a strange juxtaposition of a stilllife of steel utensils in the fore-ground, with a slightly garish floraldesign in the background. Gupta employs the effectiveness of ahyper-realist palette to suggest that the objects are more real thanreality might allow. Gupta’s configuration of steel utensils alongwith the introduction of a floral element appears to reference a hierarchy of decorative forms.

Subodh GuptaUntitled (Pot) 2004Oil on canvas 168 x 229 cm

With Untitled (Pot) Gupta manages to illuminate and elevate hisready-mades to positions of greater grandeur. His still-life paintingsappear to celebrate objects in space almost as successfully as hisready-mades do. Row upon row of copper based utensils andtiffin-tins hang from a kitchen ceiling. Gupta’s paintings transformthe objects to appear more valuable than usual.

Hema UpadhyayKilling Site 2008Acrylic, gouache, dry pastel, photograph on paper, aluminiumsheets, resin 183 x 122 x 61 cm

Baroda born and Mumbai based Hema Upadhyay uses photog-raphy and sculptural installations to explore notions of personalidentity, dislocation, nostalgia and gender. Upadhyay’s work KillingSite draws on the theme of migration and human displacementacross Asia. The top of the work is based on Mumbai’s dilapidatedshanty towns, here appearing upside down and protruding out likea canopy over Upadhyay’s decorated montage. Upadhyay drawson her own personal and family history of migration to express herconcerns and this is expressed through the way she portraysherself in her works. The upturned slums reference the repercus-sions and socio-economic inequalities that emerge as a hiddenconsequence of the relentless tide of urban development in thecity.

Justin PonmanyStaple Agony II, Plastic Memory 2006Acrylic and holographic pigment on canvas, diptych 191 x 325 cm

There is a Darwinian approach to much of Ponmany’s practice, ashe continually reorganises and reinvents reality. Rebranding bydigitising, Ponmany duplicates figures in electric landscapes thatare stylised beyond comprehension were it not for the reoccurringmarkers and motifs of figures and skyscrapers that appear in hisworks. Using plastic paints, silver holograms, rich pigments ofcolour and distorted photographic-negatives, Ponmany is as inter-ested in the production of his works as he is in the object thatexists thereafter. Staple Agony II, Plastic Memory is a work thatmight appear to come from the lyric of a Radiohead song, in whichthe solitary shell of a hooded figure is seated at the centre of anenclosed space with what appears to be an industrial staple-gun,illuminated in orange, floating in the foreground.

Gallery 9

Mansoor AliDance Of Democracy 2008Installation with discarded chairs 427 x 244 x 244 cm

Ali’s free-standing installation of discarded chairs piled high,without direction or reason, balances precariously and may at anymoment fall to the ground. Ali often employs ready-made objectssuch as the chairs used in this work, which are wrecked and bat-tered in their appearance. Rising from its elevated base, Dance ofDemocracy appears to stay upright by sheer luck, infusing his artwith humour and poignancy.

Bharti KherUntitled 2008Bindis on painted board 173 x 311 cm

Highly regarded for her sculptural works, Kher has also produced paint-ings and installations that challenge cultural and social taboos in India.Untitled is composed of multi-layered and multi-coloured bindis. Thesenumerous circles of coloured felt are concentrated on painted board. Areoccurring motif in her work, like the wheel rooted to the centre of theIndian flag, the bindi is at the centre of social and cultural identity andcan be seen as a sign of the marital woman and her place in society.The bindi also traditionally represents a third eye, linking the spiritualand material world. In recent times, it has been reformed as a fashionaccessory, available in different colours and shapes. With this work theartist is signalling a need for social change and challenging the role ofthe women entrenched in tradition, whilst also commenting on the com-moditisation of the bindi as a fashion accessory.

Sakshi GuptaUntitled (Xerox Machine) 2008Metal scrap, gears, motors 92 x 150 x 60 cm

Reclaiming the wreckage of an old dilapidated Xerox machine thatappears to have been used to the point of its extinction, artistSakshi Gupta appears to have prized the shell apart as though aforensic scientist, looking over the anatomical organs under thenatural light of the operating theatre. The work redefines useless-ness as useful; stripped of its conventional productive function, thework alludes to the impact or consequences of what, in life, is otherwise hidden from sight. Elevating the machinery off theground and positioning its integral parts side by side, Guptamanages very resourcefully to deliver something quite beautifulback. This recent work demonstrates Gupta’s ability to scrutinizereality for opportunities for creativity, even where death and decayappear much more prevalent.

Chitra GaneshTales Of Amnesia 2002- 2007 21 C-prints

New York based artist Chitra Ganesh studied literature at Brownand painting at Columbia. For the artist, the comic book appears toepitomise and perpetuate a perverse sense of good over evil.Such scenarios are at the centre of classic Indian literature suchas the Ramayana in which men and women indulge in episodes ofabsolute and unsolicited power. The stylised simplification of thecomic book style is central to Ganesh’s work Tales of Amnesia2002-07 in which the audacious female character confronts sub-scribed notions of compliance in order to explore alternativemodels of femininity and power. By rewriting popular history,Ganesh appears to empower her character Amnesia with an op-portunity to directly challenge the original fairy tale. For Ganesh,such preconceived social codes have always been heavily influ-enced by religion and literature and her work reconfigures thesecodes.

Chitra GaneshTwisted 2001Digital C-print 76 x 52 cm

In Twisted, the artist appears to be twisted on a bed of leavesdeep in the forest, illuminated by artificial light and struggling tofind her feet in a strange juxtaposition of beautifully tailoredcostume and contoured body parts. It becomes almost impossibleto rationalise what might have happened to Ganesh’s central char-acter and why this figure stretched out appears utterly of anotherworld. The work references notions of the plight of women inmodern India and a willingness on Ganesh’s part to refer to veryclassical views of women and their subservient role to men.

Chitra GaneshHidden 2007Photographic triptych 61 x 63.5 cm

Chitra Ganesh’s photographic triptych Hidden depicts the artistperforming bizarre acts of mutilation and mysticism. The timelessbackdrop and the indecipherable objects speak of Ganesh’s in-terest in the symbolism of classical literature that she activelycritiques in her Amnesia works. Rather than indulging in beautyand heroic drama, Ganesh exposes herself to the vulnerability ofperforming for the camera.

Chitra GaneshSecrets 2007C-print 122 x 114 cm

Chitra Ganesh’s accomplished illustration is a wondrous scene inwhich reality appears to have been forsaken for something muchmore troublesome. Ganesh’s landscape of tranquil water is litteredwith female forms that appear to come directly from the artist’simagination. Composed of vengeful double heads rooted on handswith decapitated fingers, adolescent school-girls sprouting from atight-fitting skirt and blouse with multiple limbs and a naked figurehanging from a forlorn tree with lotus leaves and a hand; Ganesh’svivid illustration is born of a deliberate stream of consciousnessand a dream like state that very graphically challenges preconcep-tions of the representation of women.

Schandra SinghNeha 2008Oil on linen 274 cm x 183 cm

Neha is a large scale work of a girl standing knee deep in shallowwaters, with a recurring logo of a small lobster floating over thecanvas. Singh’s figure appears to resemble a mosaic, composedof varying shapes and fragments of colour pressing against eachother to formulate her face and body. Unfortunately Singh’s figureappears more perplexed than relaxed and as with all her stylisedcharacters resting in these shallow waters, the audience arealmost invited to laugh at the absurdity of these cumbersome indi-viduals seeking solace in their artificial surroundings.

Schandra SinghThe Lazy River 2006Oil on linen 229 x 274 cm

Beautifully stylised and helplessly satirical, Singh’s oil worksappear to be preoccupied by the absurdity of social notions of restat a time of incredible unrest. Singh’s large scale paintings on linendepict figures of leisure wrestling with the oddities of the artificialwater pool and inflatable rubber rings. Mocking them for their idle-ness, Singh depicts a landscape as far removed from reality asappears possible and in so doing draws attention to possibilities ofsocial escape during a time of heightened violence. The LazyRiver is an amusing work of tired and exhausted figures haplesslyfloating as they rest upon inflated clouds of white cushions.

Ajit ChauhanReRecord 2009162 erased record (album) covers 279.4 x 560 cm

American born Ajit Chauhan, based in San Francisco, is an artist attempting to subvert our sense of perception by reorganizing ex-isting visual languages. For one of his most recent body of worksentitled ReRecord Chauhan uses old vinyl albums. The work iscomposed of 160 erased record covers pinned together onto awall, forming unresolved and slightly faded portraits that recall and highlight the ephemeral nature of things. The record coverscan be seen as a marketing tool and a form of expression. Theyare an expression of marketing, which is playfully undermined.Chauhan’s unresolved portraits are rendered abstract and a reoccurring absence of detail unsettles any sense of somethingmore substantial. Chauhan’s playfulness, upon what alreadyexists, amounts to a work of delicate resolve and mild amusement.

Gallery 11

Rashid RanaVeil Series I, II, & III 20043 C prints + DIASEC 51 x 51 cm each

Rashid Rana critiques culturally constructed, negative stereotypesof women through his work, whether in relation to the sexual objectification of women through the pornography industry or in relation to how the burqa is worn and perceived as a politicalsymbol in a post 9-11 era. In Veil I, Veil II & III, Rana depicts ananonymous figure dressed in a burqa. Upon further inspection, thework is actually a fragmented collage made-up of thousands ofsmall, unfocused pornographic stills of women. By using boththese representations of gender in a rigid manner, Rana is effec-tively destroying them both, forcing the viewer to look beyond themand critique the so-called machinery of truth from which they areborn.

Rashid RanaOmmatidia I (Hrithik Roshan) (Salman Khan) (Shahrukh Khan)2004C Print + DIASEC

Rashid Rana’s work takes its title from the units that form aninsect’s eye, the ommatidia, which individually provide picture ele-ments for the brain to compose an image from. Rana uses digitalimages to similar effect in his Ommatidia series, where he takessome of the leading actors of contemporary Bollywood cinema,Hrithik Roshan, Salman Khan and Shahrukh Khan, and re-con-structs their portraits from smaller individual elements.

These renowned figures from contemporary cinema are the stablediet for millions of people in India, Pakistan and throughout theIndian subcontinent who almost religiously frequent the cinemaand absorb the choreographed dance routines and songs that arethe signature of every musical. Rana draws together hundreds ofsmaller crudely cut portraits of young Pakistani men; workers, at-tendants, shopkeepers, who appear haphazardly photographed bythe artist, in order to compose a kaleidoscopic portrait of each ofthese actors.

The minute faces look in adulation at their idols. Rana suggeststhat these cinematic heroes are the invention of the viewing public,who invest their own imaginations and desires in the hyper-realitythat make up the lives of these Indian superstars. The OmmatidiaSeries ultimately subverts and re-appropriates the concept ofdesire and fantasy world created in Indian film, while pointing outthe complexity of attempting to fabricate a cultural narrative.

Gallery 10

Jitish KallatEruda 2006Black lead on fibreglass 419 x 169 x 122 cm

Eruda is a mammoth iconic sculpture of a young boy selling bookson the traffic lights of Mumbai. The children (who could sometimesbe illiterate) often sell these books authoritatively, playfully en-gaging in conversations about the book’s interest value; theirrigour, audacity and endurance making them mascots for the re-silience of a city such as Mumbai. Kallat’s sculpture has feetshaped like homes, forming the quintessential image of a nomadwhose home is where he lays his feet. Treated in black-lead,‘Eruda’ ensures that you take back a black stain on your fingers ifyou choose to touch him; also black-lead is the softest form ofcarbon while diamond remains the hardest.

Jitish KallatAnnexe 2006Black lead, fibreglass, stainless steel base(Including the base) 145 x 46 x 46 cm

Annexe is a sculpture of a young child, whose upstanding posturesuggests a determination to survive. Weighing over his shoulder isa heavy serpentine rope used as a whip with which to lash himselfin order to seek alms. Like Eruda, his feet shaped like homesappear rooted to the spot while his glistening black-lead bodystands on a stainless steel base with a drain, perhaps representinga punctured sculpture pedestal or the societal gulf between theveneer of wealth and the perceived stain of real poverty.

Jitish KallatUntitled (Eclipse) 5 2008Acrylic on canvas 229 x 518 cm

Kallat’s paintings from the Eclipse series are rendered in the epicscale and format of a film hoarding with the hard edge of a propa-ganda poster. The portrait of the city, rendered as a crumblingcascade of countless narratives, interlaces with the overgrown hairof the children as if they were raconteurs of the city’s inner secrets.The brimming debris forms a linkage between the heads of the chil-dren seeming to signify their common overlapping reality.

Jitish KallatUntitled (Eclipse) 3 2007Acrylic on canvas 274 x 518 cm

Similarly in Kallat’s huge triptych Untitled (Eclipse) 3, rays of sun-shine emanate from the background; the grand radiance thatforms the backdrop for the portraits is in sharp contrast to the car-icaturesque rendition of the urban detritus brimming out of theunkempt locks of the children. Thus above their forehead are ren-dered a thousand colliding stories; perhaps the complex narrativeof 18 million people living on an island of 600 square kilometersthat is Mumbai.

Yamini NayarSincere 2006C-print 51 x 61 cm

Nayar’s constructs recall the work of German artist ThomasDemand, renowned for his paper interiors that, once pho-tographed, allude to something significant having taken place.However unlike Demand’s work, her fictionalised interiors such asSincere are less a reconstruction from recent history and more away into the artist’s imagination, in which objects and emblems arejuxtaposed in architectonic niches. The artist uses both made andfound objects as well as images sourced from cinema, photo-graphic archives and mass media to create these interiors.

Yamini NayarBeing There 2006C-print 51 x 61 cm

In Being There, Nayar conceives a miniature room of paneledglass and fake columns with coat-hangers and a protruding guitarhandle residing close to the floor. The walls and the floor appearuneven, resembling a kitsch corner for idle recreation. In the centreof the photograph is a bamboo stick bent slightly, jutting from thewall with a lamp-shade shaped like a beehive. Nayar explains herphotographic works as a series of “spaces that question the iconicin photographic memory, where found images are pivot points forimagined, alternate structures.”

Yamini NayarWhat Is Essential 2006C-print 51 x 61 cm

Yamini Nayar’s work What is Essential is composed of ready-mades juxtaposed into an interesting configuration of modernnarrative. A photograph of a parachutist in faded black and whiteis resting between the tiled floor and the laminated fake woodenwall. The photograph and the array of porcelain and plastic objectsappear to be organised as one might arrange a desk. The work ex-plores the intimacy of objects in space, as they reference that of afound photograph central to the composition.

Reena Saini KallatSynonym 2007Acrylic paint, rubberstamps, plexiglas 195 x 134 cm

The work stands like a screen, holding up a portrait formed byseveral hundred names of people, rendered in scripts of over 14Indian languages. From a distance they come together as a portrait, but up-close they almost seem like a circuit-board of rub-berstamps. The rubberstamps are made with names of thoseofficially registered as having gone missing in India from differentgeographical zones. These include the names of those lostthrough natural calamities such as landslides, floods and earth-quakes, the names of those who have gone missing during riots orlarge scale mishaps and the names of those abducted or absconding, with the police still trying to ascertain their where-abouts. These are people who seem to have slipped out of theradar of human communication, who have been thrown off thesocial safety net. The portrait of a sub-continental citizen is formedby numerous such names; the back of the portrait emerges as asea of invisible identities, a bird’s eye view of a large human con-gregation.

Yamini NayarUnderfoot And Overhead 2008C-print 76 x 102 cm

Yamini Nayar works with installation and architecture as photog-raphy, creating imagined, psychologically laden interiors fromfound and discarded materials. These installations are destroyedafter the work is photographed, so that the photographic imageserves as a stand-in for the original work. In representing inventedspaces as still images, any sense of scale is concealed from theaudience. The interiors appear destroyed by acts of nature. InUnderfoot and Overhead a dishevelled staircase falls precariouslyfrom a doorway with a thread of foliage hanging over the darkenedentrance. Once inside, a single light-bulb appears to illuminate adarkened room. The work takes its name from a Rudyard Kiplingpoem.

Rashid RanaThe World Is Not Enough 2006 - 2007C Print + DIASEC 221 x 296 cm

In The World is Not Enough Rashid Rana creates an impossibleimage of immense beauty from his personal accumulation of pho-tographs of social waste, taken mostly from a landfill site outsideLahore, the cosmopolitan city of Pakistan where he lives, as wellas from the city itself. Reduced to miniature pixels of information,the details that form the much larger image, of what appears to bethe undulating sea, are in fact hundreds of images of trash digitally‘stitched’ into a non-existent aerial view that bear an uncanny re-semblance to the large canvases of non-representational art fromthe post-war era. A sense of the scale and singularity of man’sambition is indicated, not through great feats of industry or themiracle of science, but through one of the residual by-products ofour age. Here, as elsewhere in the artist’s work, the juxtapositionof beauty and the macabre forces the viewer into an acknowl-edgement of the politics of the piece. A work that appears on onelevel to represent a notion of ideal beauty is in fact based on amore troubling examination of the increasing detritus and decay ofthe city.

Pushpamala N and Clare Arni From The Ethnographic Series Native Women of South India:Manners & Customs 2000- 2004 Medium set of 45 sepia-toned silver gelatine prints

Bangalore based Pushpamala N is a photo- and video-perfor-mance artist who is the subject of her own compositions. In thisseries of works, the artist explores photography as a tool of ethnographic documentation and humorously challenges the authenticity of the photographic image. Created in collaborationwith photographer Clare Arni, The Ethnographic Series draws attention to the choreographed stylistics of early anthropologicalstudies, enacting and thereby transforming stereotypes of women.Dressing in period costume, Pushpamala refashions these stereo-types to subvert and critique the forensic classification of humanity.

The strength of The Ethnographic Series lies in Pushpamala’s witin reconstructing such scenes and playfully deconstructing them,acting both as subject and object to the camera.

Yamini NayarStudy 1 2008C-print (architectural drawing on photograph) 26.5 x 34.3 cm

By drawing directly onto photographs, Nayar’s 2008 series recallsthe work of French architect Yona Friedman and his portfolio ofworking sketches and formal solutions for which he draws andscores directly onto documentation of pre-existing architecturalspaces. Such inventiveness is at the root of Nayar’s geometric in-terventions that have her redesigning damaged cityscapes in orderto suggest greater possibilities. In this work, Nayar manages toinvent order out of chaos, to seek sense where there are only theremnants of destruction.

Yamini NayarStudy 2 2008C-print (architectural drawing on photograph) 26.5 x 34.3 cm

Thin white lines are spread very precisely over the surface of thephotograph as the artist uses previous documentation as a placefrom which to invent something else. Nayar’s drawings appear tosuggest that she has arrived too late to save this piece of realityand is instead seeking order in the remains of littered chaos. Theend of everything is the point at which Nayar introduces creativityto consider what can still be possible.

Yamini NayarCleo 2009C-print 76.3 x 101.5 cm

A more recent photographic work Cleo (2009) shows a darkenedattic with broken floorboards and an unfinished partition wall withan eye crudely cut into the back wall. The composition resemblesa scene from a faded horror film. Nayar conceives and then con-structs scenes of heightened melodrama. Nayar’s works liesomewhere between post-explosive moments of reality and dreamlike scenarios in which humanity has been wiped out.

Yamini NayarLuck Is The Residue Of Design 2007C-print 51 x 61 cm

Luck is the Residue of Design shows a seemingly abandonedspace which the earth appears to have shaken dramatically. Thedelicate shell of walls and floor appear to have cracked under theweight of temporary motion. The alcove at the back seems to havetaken some of the force of an act of nature or the weight of some-thing man-made. The use of foreshortening creates a sense ofcompression and claustrophobia in this imagined interior.

Project Room

Text © Rajesh PunjText on Huma Bhabha, Emily Prince and Richard Wilson © Patricia EllisPrinted by ArtQuarters Press, London

Gallery 13 Lower Ground Floor

Richard Wilson20:50 1987Used sump oil, steel Dimensions variable

Richard Wilson’s 20:50 is truly a contemporary masterpiece. Thework is the only permanent installation at the Saatchi Gallery andhas been continuously shown in each of the gallery’s venues since1991. Currently on display in Gallery 13 – a room custom built forthe piece – 20:50 transforms the gallery into a site of epic illusion.

Viewed from the entrance platform 20:50 appears as a holographicfield: simultaneously a polished floor, infinite clear pool, an expan-sive and indefinable virtual space that clinically absorbs andmirrors the gallery architecture. The room is in fact entirely floodedin oil.

Visitors are invited to examine the piece close-up via a walkwaythat extends into the lake, placing the viewer, waist deep, at thecentre of a perfect mathematically symmetrical scope. Throughthis altered perspective 20:50’s phantasmical aura is enhanced,amplifying the disorientating and mesmerising experience of thespace, and further confounding physical logic.

20:50 takes its name from the type of recycled engine oil used. It is thick, pitch black, and absolutely indelible: please take extremecare with your clothing and belongings, and no matter howtempting, please do not touch. 20:50 often has to be demonstratedto be believed: the liquid can be seen by blowing very gently on thesurface.

Emily Prince American Servicemen And Women Who Have Died In Iraq AndAfghanistan (But Not Including The Wounded, Nor The Iraqis NorThe Afghans) 2004 to the presentPencil on color coded vellum Project comprised of 5,213 drawingsEach image: 4 x 3 in Dimensions variable

Emily Prince’s American Servicemen and Women Who Have Diedin Iraq and Afghanistan (but not Including the Wounded, nor theIraqis nor the Afghans) is a genuinely awe inspiring tribute.Comprised of over 5100 drawings – each an intimately renderedportrait of a fallen soldier – its scope is beyond rationale as thestatistics of war are re-transformed into real faces, real people:identified, mourned, cherished, and remembered. Prince’s work isinspired by a memorial website where families post photographs oftheir loved ones killed in action. She visits this site several times aweek and makes drawings for every update; those without photosare represented by an empty square labeled with the individual’sname and other biographical information.

Rendered in pencil on small uniform cards, each portrait is anattempt to ‘see’ each individual: through studying their facial fea-tures, posture, and expression, and noting personal details such astheir name, age, and place of origin. The coloured paper indicatesthe soldiers’ ethnic origin, further enhancing their individualism,and illustrating the socio-economic factors which play a part inAmerican military recruitment. Through this humble ritual, Princepays her respects and creates an astounding visual record ofevery soldier killed in action since 2004.

The installation was originally hung in 2005 at the Yerba BuenaCenter for the Arts, San Francisco before being installed in theArsenale of the Venice Biennale in 2007 in the shape of a 14metre long US map, with each portrait positioned according to thesoldier’s hometown; however, in the two short years since thisshowing, US troops have suffered casualties at an alarming rate:the vast number of new drawings makes this format of presenta-tion impossible. The project is now installed in chronological order,as it was at the Wanas Centre in 2009, mirroring the Honor TheFallen page on www.militarycity.com. This fills 3 entire walls of theSaatchi Gallery, and spans 40 metres. Its sheer incomprehensiblescale resolves as a moving and powerful protest.

Exuding an overwhelming obeisance and dignity in its simplicity,the project breaks down the abstract enormity of war into count-able, personal, knowable human terms. Its immense scale iscommensurate with the enduring public monuments of past wars.Its meek construction in pencil and paper, however, does not pointto glory and grandeur, but rather a tender fragility and imperma-nence, recording history’s making, its collective heroicism and loss,with touching and rarefied intimacy.

American Servicemen and Women Who Have Died in Iraq andAfghanistan (but not Including the Wounded, nor the Iraqis nor theAfghans) is an ongoing project which will not be complete untilAmerican involvement in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan ends.The project is ongoing and of note, 2100 drawings have beenadded since it’s initial presentation in Venice.

EMILY PRINCE

1981 Born in Gold Run, California, USALives and works in San Francisco, USA

RICHARD WILSON

1953 Born in London, UKLives and works in London, UK

JAISHRI ABICHANDANI

1969 Born in Mumbai IndiaLives and works in New York, U.S.A.

MANSOOR ALI

1978 Born in Jasmatpur, Gujarat, IndiaLives and works in Baroda, India

KRITI ARORA

1972 Born in Delhi, IndiaLives and works in Delhi, India

HUMA BHABHA

1962 Born in Karachi, PakistanLives and works in Poughkeepsie, New York

AJIT CHAUHAN

1974 Born in London, UKLives and works in London, UK

SHEZAD DAWOOD

1974 Born in London, UKLives and works in London, UK

ATUL DODIYA

1959 Born in Bombay, IndiaLives and works in Bombay, India

CHITRA GANESH

1975 Born in New York, U.S.A.Lives and works in Brooklyn, New York

PROBIR GUPTA

1960 Born in Calcutta, IndiaLives and works in New Delhi, India

SAKSHI GUPTA

1960 Born in Calcutta, IndiaLives and works in New Delhi, India

SUBODH GUPTA

1964 Born in Khagaul, Bihar, IndiaLives and works in New Delhi, India

TUSHAR JOAG

1966 Born in Mumbai, IndiaLives and works in Mumbai, India

JITISH KALLAT

1974 Born in Mumbai, IndiaLives and works in Mumbai, India

REENA SAINI KALLAT

1973 Born in Delhi, IndiaLives and works in Mumbai, India

BHARTI KHER

1969 Born in London, UKLives and works Delhi, India

RAJAN KRISHNAN

1967 Born in Kerala, IndiaLives and works in Kochi, Kerala, India

Artist biographies

HUMA MULJI

1970 Born in Karachi, PakistanLives and works in Lahore, Pakistan

PUSHPAMALA N

1956 Born in Bangalore, IndiaLives and works in Bangalore, India

YAMINI NAYAR

1975 Born in Rochester, New York, U.S.A.Lives and works in New York, U.S.A.

JUSTIN PONMANY

1974 Born in Kerala, IndiaLives and works in Mumbai, India

RASHID RANA

1968 Born in Lahore, PakistanLives and works in Lahore, Pakistan

TV SANTHOSH

1968 Born in Kerala, IndiaLives and works in Mumbai, India

SCHANDRA SINGH

1977 Born in Suffern New York, U.S.A.Lives and works in Poughkeepsie, New York, U.S.A.

TALLUR L.N

1971 Born in Karnataka, IndiaLives and works in India and South Korea

HEMA UPADHYAY

1972 Born in Baroda, IndiaLives and works in Mumbai, India

T VENKANNA

1974 Born in Mumbai, IndiaLives and works in Mumbai, India

Phillips de Pury & Company’s rapport with

collectors is an integral part of our history and

vision for the future. Inspired by collectors’

passion and energy, we are developing unique

platforms to share their love of art with a

broader audience. In 2009 we started

interviewing an international selection of

collectors for editorials in our theme sale

catalogues. We are now taking this commitment

further by showcasing a series of private

collections in Phillips de Pury’s exhibition

space at the Saatchi Gallery.

This initiative will allow the public to

contemporary art collections from across

the globe that are rarely, if ever, placed on

public view. Each exhibition will bring together

different collector’s personal vision on the most

exciting developments in contemporary art.

Arne Quinze, Stilthouse 2260 (2008)

Martin Kippenberger, Big Until Great Hunger (1984)

Lee YongBaek, Plastic Fish (2008)

ARTISTS LIST

Fernando Gutierrez

Michael Vasquez

Jia Aili Steve Bishop

Ryan McGinley

Boo Ritson

Matthew Day Jackson

Kevin Francis Gray

Chen Ke Kentaro Kobuke

Os Gêmeos

Kohei Nawa

Farhad Moshiri

Tomoo Gokita

Sun Xun

established and emerging artists to reflect a

experience some of the most significant

Phillips de Pury & Company’s rapport with

collectors is an integral part of our history and

vision for the future. Inspired by collectors’

passion and energy, we are developing unique

platforms to share their love of art with a

broader audience. In 2009 we started

interviewing an international selection of

collectors for editorials in our theme sale

catalogues. We are now taking this commitment

further by showcasing a series of private

collections in Phillips de Pury’s exhibition

space at the Saatchi Gallery.

This initiative will allow the public to

contemporary art collections from across

the globe that are rarely, if ever, placed on

public view. Each exhibition will bring together

different collector’s personal vision on the most

exciting developments in contemporary art.

Arne Quinze, Stilthouse 2260 (2008)

Martin Kippenberger, Big Until Great Hunger (1984)

Lee YongBaek, Plastic Fish (2008)

ARTISTS LIST

Fernando Gutierrez

Michael Vasquez

Jia Aili Steve Bishop

Ryan McGinley

Boo Ritson

Matthew Day Jackson

Kevin Francis Gray

Chen Ke Kentaro Kobuke

Os Gêmeos

Kohei Nawa

Farhad Moshiri

Tomoo Gokita

Sun Xun

established and emerging artists to reflect a

experience some of the most significant

Phillips de Pury & Company Gallery

Floorplan

LEVEL 2 GALLERY 11

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SCHOOLSART

DISPLAYPHILLIPS DE PURY &COMPANY GALLERY

PHILLIPS DE PURY &COMPANY GALLERY

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GALLERY 6

GALLERY 1

GALLERY 2

GALLERY 3

GALLERY 5

GALLERY 4

GALLERY 13

CLOAKROOM

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MEZZANINE

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FREE SAATCHI GALLERY MEMBERSHIPRegister Online on the top floor of the galleryIt is free to become a member of the Saatchi Gallery.Simply register your details to receive advance information about exhibitions, talks, workshops,special events, competitions, awards etc.Members will also be invited to special preview days and members evenings.

SHOWDOWN WINNERSSaatchi Online hosts Showdown, where artists submit their works to go head-to-head for visitors’ votesThe public voted on thousands of artworks entered and the outright winners, and roundwinners, are shown on the top floor and in the gallery restaurant. The works are for sale withno commission charged to buyer or seller. Please ask at reception for prices and purchasedetails.See details on www.saatchigallery.com/showdown

SAATCHI GALLERY / SUNDAY TELEGRAPH ART PRIZE FOR SCHOOLSAll Primary and Secondary schools around the world are now able to create school profilesand display artwork created by pupils between 4-18 years old.A panel of leading art critics invited by the Sunday Telegraph and the Saatchi Gallery willchoose their favourite works, and a first prize of £10,000 will be awarded to the winningschool’s art department. A further £2000 will be given to the winning pupil to be spent on com-puter and art equipment. There will be prizes of £5000 each awarded to the second and thirdplace schools with a further £1000 to each of the winning pupils. Some of the submitted art-works are shown in a small gallery on the top floor, prior to a large scale exhibition. More worksare displayed in the Education Room on the lower ground floor.

SAATCHI ONLINEwww.saatchigallery.com

Saatchi Online provides a place where art can be displayed, discussed and sold free from commission to either buyer or seller. It is now the world’s largest Art Gallery website,

as ranked by Alexa, the internet’s leading research organization

Saatchi Online Artists Saatchi Online profiles can be created free of charge byartists to display their work and network with other users.In total there are over 120,000 artists registered on SaatchiOnline. Artists are also offered exposure at the world’sleading art fairs on Saatchi Online stands. All work soldthrough Saatchi Online is free of commission to eitherbuyer or seller

Colleges Curriculum details and information from over 3000 of theworld’s top universities and colleges who have enteredtheir profiles

Video Artists, Photographers and IllustratorsOver 6,000 artists’ videos are displayed on the site andthousands of photographers and illustrators have createdtheir free profiles to showcase their work

Saatchi Gallery / Sunday Telegraph Art PrizeFor SchoolsOver 3000 schools from around the world display theirpupils’ work on this online schools showcase. Over 22,000entries from around the world were submitted in the 2009Saatchi Gallery / Sunday Telegraph Art Prize for Schoolsworth £24,000.

Saatchi Online TV, Daily Magazine and BlogDaily interactive magazine combining editorial and visitors comments, providing art news from all over theworld updated every 15 minutes. Contributions are in-cluded from international art critics and correspondents.Reviews and essays can also be submitted here by visi-tors. Mixing editorial with direct video blogs, Saatchi OnlineTV features vox pops, films of art openings, interviews,artists’ studios, art performances and reviews

MuseumsCollection highlights and visitor information from over 3000of the world’s leading museums who have entered theirprofiles

LinksA direct linking facility where artists, media and cultural in-stitutions can place a link to their website, creating easyaccess for visitors

Meet OthersUsers can post details about themselves and meet otherpeople interested in art.

Saatchi Online Street Art Visitors can display and discuss graffiti, murals, street pho-tography, performance and body art submitted fromcountries around the world

Saatchi Online CritsWorks presented by artists for critique and comment byother artists

Saatchi Online Showdown Ongoing weekly head-to-head competition open for all vis-itors to vote for their favourite works submitted by SaatchiOnline artists, the winning works to be exhibited at theSaatchi Gallery. Showdown receives an average of 3million votes each week

Art Fairs Previews all the leading art fairs from around the worldwho have entered their profiles

Dealers and Galleries Over 9,800 galleries worldwide have entered their profilesto detail their exhibitions and display their artists’ work

Saatchi Online SaleroomArtists who wish to sell their work directly to visitors canload their images for viewing on this section. Over 100,000artworks are available to be seen, with no commissioncharged to artist or buyer

Grants and Prizes Artists’ funding opportunities, grants and prizes fromacross the world

ChatroomUsers can chat live with other visitors and speak with guestartists hosting online discussions

Saatchi Online Art StudentsOver 30,000 students from around the world use the site as a free space to show their work and make contact with other students. An annual competition, ‘4 New Sensations’ is run in collaboration with Channel 4in the UK

Saatchi Online Studio Where artists can make and display work online. Eachmonth a winner is selected by a guest critic and £500donated in the winner’s name to a children’s hospital oftheir choice. There is also a popular children’s version onthe site, Artroom.

Gallery Patron

Media Partner

Founding Patron

Education Patrons

Deutsche Bank

Google

Lille 3000

Magic of Persia

Corporate Patrons

Allford Hall Monaghan Morris

Arup

ClearChannel Outdoor

ERCO

Goedhuis & Company

Jackson Coles

Vitra

Walker Morris

The Saatchi Gallery and Phillips de Pury & Company would like to thank

SAATCHIGALLERY

in partnership with

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