SATYAMEVA JAYATE?
SUCHENDER P.
Anant Art Gallery, 2008
Catalogue Essay: Deeksha Nath
40 pages
IMAGINE GOVERNANCE AND GOVERNING THE IMAGINATION: “ASOKA DREAM TURNS INTO A NIGHTMARE’
The latter half of the above statement was uttered by Sucheder P.as we walked through his new body of works in which he uses the Ashokan capital , among other state symbols, to create an exacting critique of corruption in the Indian Civil Service.
This image (of the Asoka Pillar) with its grand history and narrative, is re-imagined by Suchender to investigate the failure of the symbol of justice, truth and liberty. The artist uses straight forward images, a bullet which stamps an official Government seal in ‘Take Off’or the Ashokan capital remodeled as an armour in ‘Armour’ or the lion painted green, blue and white for the three branches of the armed forces, the Army, the Navy, and the Air Force in ‘Trio’. These paintings speak volumes of the authority yielded by the government officials, especially the security branches, by aligning themselves and their actions with this one symbol and thus in some sense justifying their actions presenting them as sanctioned by nation and history.
(excerpt from the catalogue essay titled ‘Imagine governance and governing the imagination: “Asoka dream turns into a nightmare’ by Deeksha Nath)