Critical Review.

I went to the In Transition: New Art from India in surrey museum on February 28th, 2011. I found Randir Kaleka’s work entertaining and his works struck me the most. I went to the exhibition for an hour and left. His work called Reading Man opened my eyes to new ideas and conveyed interesting stories as the paintings overlapped each other, and sculptures to form a shape of his work. There were three paintings side by side, and three sculptures that stood in front of it. First painting was of an Indian man, second was abstract painting of a forest and third was of a road. The three sculptures were made of metal and was of chair, and two men laying down and standing up. This work was quite large in size and stood out. It was colorful and since it was a collage, the paintings looked as if they were connecting but what really got my attention were the metal sculptures in front of the paintings. They were unique, and it was a different way of sculpting with metal wires and was also a simple technique of making them. There were no real intimate connection I felt with this work. However, I imagined the meaning behind the work and why every piece put together are overlapped and the way each piece is positioned to create a form. I think it has much to do with the history and the myth of the Indian culture. The man in the painting is a hero and that saved his people, he is in a moment where he runs through the darkness with a weapon in his hands. The forests represent the journey he is going to be taking. And the color becomes darker as he would run through the two forests, so the journey is going to be tough. And the metal sculptures represent the current life after the hero has saved his people, so the people he saved are more civilized. Therefore, the are no trees , just people positioned in different levels enjoying their time of existence. I think it has a strong meaning but it does not do a great job at conveying it. Without the sculptures that are made of wires, the paintings can hold stronger representation of the hero, and the adventures of his journey. Overall, the painting looked very foreign, a mixture of European style technique with Indian cultural patterns that would be used for celebration of their culture and heritage. The artist has done a great job mixing the two styles together. However, the meaning lost its value when the sculptures were involved.