Our surrounding and social concerns have always motivated us to a new high. Kanta Kishore is no exception

Kanta Kishore has picked the popular slum with a different perspective that essentially deals with the core of the subject


Kanta Kishore Moharana represented by Ashok Art Gallery Delhi

Slums in Neighbourhood

Artists are exploring new media and techniques to convince the viewer in the present day. The range of subjects that the artist deals with today is intriguing and relevant. Indian art seems to have transformed from modesty to market and the journey has been interesting too. The turning points of art here depend heavily on the attitude of the artists and what we have noticed is the increase in the intellectual input with passing time. This has carried us forward from the agreement of the narratives in mythology and epics to negotiating society to human awareness of several factors. Our surrounding and social concerns have always motivated us to a new high. Kanta Kishore is no exception.

Kanta Kishore has picked the popular slum with a different perspective that essentially deals with the core of the subject. The effort by the dwellers to construct the beautiful and magnificent in the city remains in the most neglected part of the earth. Their struggle for existence depend on adversities of life and in the process, they sometimes smile up to their success, which is rare, and rest of the times, lament over their survival. In all these conditions, a pair of sleepers perhaps allows them to retain the honour of human while addressing the rough patches leading to life. The chaos of arrangement also depicts the lifestyle of people inhabit. However high or low they might go individually but collectively they remain intact to the nails that bind them to the ground. The insiders story of constructing a world imagined for the other rightly develop the concept of living.

The composition has deliberately caught our concern for the slum and its dwellers. The symbolic is apparent, expressive and transformed; it suggests the simplest of material in high coordination with installation art. The painting complements to the installation by making it look obvious and illustrative. Kanta Kishore has seemingly taken a defensive position in portraying the subject though several aggressive pointers are available to us. The approach to the subject is worth admiration. The awareness to uplift the downtrodden needs more application both politically and socially. The change is coming at a slow pace and it would appear significantly in future. The makeover through the artistic expression is to the concern is remarkable.
Sculpture Review by Dr. Pradosh Kumar Mishra(Art Historian)
Watch out for this growing talent in Art Expo India: Kantakishore Moharana