Suman Kabiraj
Images that I create, or seek to create and the images that are constantly being created in and
around me, thanks to the great image journey called life. So, the things I paint, draw, install, make
video, do photography or sculpt, originate from my everyday engagement with Reality. This is a
Reality which, for me, is made of mundane happenings and uncanny images which penetrate into
each other regularly, often unexpectedly, leaving me bewildered.
Born in a semi-urban area, very close to village, I had the fortune of getting in close contact with the
rural area and nature– both spatially and psycho-spatially. Then I moved to Kolkata for my art
education in 1999 and since then, I’ve been into the entrails of this megapolis. Such a geographical
binary, and the tension within, have contributed largely to my imagination.
For example, this has allowed me to perceive human bodies and nature in different settings, in
different postures and hence, with different nuances.
In my recent works, I used satire to enable comparison, understanding and insight and holds up the
flaws in our institutions, our nations, our species and, indeed, ourselves. The works combine
history, politics and current events with levity and witty irreverence. In my ongoing project I have
chosen pen and ink, videos and sculpture. In this project, work is subversive and a comment on the
human condition itself offering the viewer a behind-the-scenes look at the heroic and the rational.
Most of my subjects are familiar but recontextualized. In what they encompass or allude to, these
works transcend the merely comically grotesque or the quest for objectivity.
Assessing these works in terms of their insight, interest, coherence, complexity, depth or intelligibility
involves a cluster of notions which are interdependent. The grotesque element in my art greatly
adds to its value. It does not, however, descend into perverse nihilism which is not an artistically
legitimate instance of the grotesque.
I am trying to point out the deficiencies in certain human institutions and the social issues which
result from them in such a way that they become absurd, even hillarious, which is therefore both
entertaining and accessible. It aims to keep collective conscience alert, it exposes absurdity for what
it is and makes those inclined to adopt foolish or tasteless fashions aware that what they espouse is
ridiculous. It shows society its own features and makes it odious to the sentient. So often satire in
the visual arts is portrayed as anti-progressive, yet its ability to offer cutting critique is a positive
when aimed at the right targets as I demonstrate.