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Produce, Buy, Consume, Die
A critique of capitalism is one of the largest art installations to hit the city this August
     
 
THE INSTALLATION EMPHASISES HOW OUR BRAINS HAVE BEEN SENT ON A HOLIDAY-KAHNDEKAR
Georgina Maddox
Sanjeev Khandekar's foray into the visual art is recent, since he's revered Jr among the literati circles of Marathi poetry. Considering it to be his first, one approaches his showing called All that I wanna do, with a tinge of scepticism.

Currently his studio is jammed with several works that are in various stages of production - the Gokul milk and sugar cane juice centre being one of the most arresting among the lot. However at this stage it's virtually impossible to predict he future of the show. But looking at its virtual image on Khandekar's computer, one can say that it's going to be a big show.

What comes, as a surprise is the fact that me of the most ambitious installations in he city comes from a writer and not one of the more established artists working in this genre. But the art world is nothing if not full of surprises.

Khandekar is a numbers man who be­lieves size does matter, so he's worked to cover an area that will span 90 (L) X 34 (w) X 10 (H) of the Kala Ghoda's Museum Gallery. The walls will have a 9x10 feet mirror on one side and wallpaper that re­sembles blood capillaries on the other. Scattered around the gallery are about 150 life size sculptures representing various parts of the human anatomy including mutant legs. From the ceiling a collection 130 Aladdin's lamps (actually fiberglass sculptures of organ parts from the diges­tive system) will dangle, while the floor space will be covered by three 10x5 feet tiles that take pages out of a science jour­nal.

Since the exhibition sounds less like art and more like a science fair project, we quiz Khandekar about the ethos behind this concept.

The idea is that mankind has been re­duced to a giant digestive system that fol­lows the maxim of produce, buy, con­sume and die. "The brain has been sent on a permanent vacation where the only opinions that are heard are the voice of the multinationals trying to sell more products," says Khandekar.

The second half of the show who’s afraid of shrinking skin (La Peau de Changrin) will be put up at Pundole Art Gallery. While the scale of the work is huge with a 15, 000 insects lodged in 15,000 holes of the gallery wall, it's a more personal show. Was funding an issue? "I hope a crazy millionaire will buy it! As far as I can say I'm trying not to sell the pieces separately and I have managed to get the funding for this project through the sup­port of fellow artists and a bank loan. Let's hone the show rocks."
-Mumbai Mirror, 31st July 2005