CHANDIGARH, Nov 12: The tramp and the exile. this eccentric combination is what emerges out of those carefully crafted collages. In fact, it is more his philosophy of life, a life indirectly spent as a victim of violence. Which explains the art form he has chosen, collage, for that is an act of violence itself, violent in that it is all about "tearing and demolishing set images and pictures".Raja Jaikishan is this tramp whose images observed over the years filled the walls of the gallery at Punjab Kala Bhawan this evening. For him, there is a tramp within each one of us. And he brings out the diametrically opposite characteristics of this tramp in two pieces, one of the tramp "tasting the thunder" and the same drink's fizz giving way to "blasts in the tramp's head". Raja's psyche still seems to be suffering from the phobia of displacement, depicted beautifully in his collages covering the Kashmir scenario. Here, we get the wonderful collage of exotic Kashmir locales in all the seasons with the fire raging in the midst which looks like the blaze within our mindscape.Then, his philosophical outlook brings the frames to the meaning of flesh. The collages in this series tell us the futility of running after flesh, bringing in the contradiction in our country wherein genitals are worshipped. To emphasise this, he concludes with a collage of a "lingam with a moon" which underlines the lunacy of it all.Organised by the North Zone Cultural Centre, the exhibition will be on till November 17.
