Rashid Rana
(1968)
Ommatidia I (Hrithik Roshan)
The present lot is part of Rana's Ommatidia series, named for the term which defines the bio-structural components that hold together the multiple lenses that form the compound eye of a housefly. As suggested by the title, the works in this series are "pixellated" reproductions of popular poster images of Bollywood stars Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan and Hrithik Roshan (the subject in the present lot). The photographic montage of the actor...
The present lot is part of Rana's Ommatidia series, named for the term which defines the bio-structural components that hold together the multiple lenses that form the compound eye of a housefly. As suggested by the title, the works in this series are "pixellated" reproductions of popular poster images of Bollywood stars Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan and Hrithik Roshan (the subject in the present lot). The photographic montage of the actor - an idolised figure in India and South Asia - is composed of several thousand photographs of ordinary young men taken from the streets of Lahore. "Tiny documentary photographs taken in the chaotic streets of Lahore provide a wider picture of celebrity as figment; a mass media construct sustained by the projected, collective dreams and aspirations of ordinary Pakistani society as it jostles politically and culturally with neighbouring India." (Ulanda Blair, Flash, Victoria: Centre for Contemporary Photography, March-June 2007, p. 9) The resulting effect serves to shift the viewer's focus from the idol to the structures that construct and support his heroic image, literally as well as metaphorically. "Visually, Rana's prints are large, sometimes even heroic in scale, and they appear from a distance as slightly blurred, low-resolution renditions of banalities: landscapes, film posters or press photographs. Drawing near, one realizes that the large and visible 'pixels' are themselves smaller photographs, which magically assemble to compose the larger image. To step near, and away, and near again, to see dark and light photographs becoming the pupil or the highlight in somebody's eye, is to experience marvellous visual complexity. But there is also always a carefully calibrated relationship between the larger image and the smaller images that compose it, and this relationship provides an intellectual substance that endures even after the first visual surprise ebbs away. Usually chosen with caustic wit, the smaller images tend to subvert or at least complicate the larger image that they create, setting up a complex relay of meanings and their deconstruction." (Quddus Mirza, Adnan Manani, Kavita Singh et al., Rashid Rana, Mumbai: Chatterjee & Lal and Chemould Prescott Road, 2010, p. 25)
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Lot
81
of
119
SUMMER ONLINE AUCTION
6-7 JUNE 2017
Estimate
Rs 4,00,000 - 6,00,000
$6,250 - 9,375
Winning Bid
Rs 4,41,600
$6,900
(Inclusive of Buyer's Premium)
ARTWORK DETAILS
Rashid Rana
Ommatidia I (Hrithik Roshan)
2004
C print and DIASEC
33 x 29.5 in (83.8 x 74.9 cm)
From a limited edition of twenty
EXHIBITED:Rashid Rana - Identical Views , New Delhi: Nature Morte, 10 - 31 July 2004; Mumbai: Chatterjee & Lal, 12 - 26 February and New York: Bose Pacia, 19 July - 20 August 2005 (another from the edition)Subodh Gupta, Rashid Rana and L.N. Tallur , New York: Bose Pacia, 2005 (another from the edition)Desi Pop , Lille: Green Cardamom at Maison Folie Wazemmes, 2006-07 (another from the edition)The 5Th Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art , Brisbane: Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art, 2006-07 (another from the edition)Face East: Contemporary Asian Portraiture , London: Wedel Fine Art, 2008 (another from the edition)The Empire Strikes Back: Indian Art Today , London: Saatchi Gallery, 2010 (another from the edition) PUBLISHED:Rashid Rana - Identical Views , Bose Pacia, New York, Chatterjee & Lal, Mumbai, and Nature Morte, New Delhi, 2004-05 (another from the edition)The Empire Strikes Back: Indian Art Today , London: Saatchi Gallery, 2010 (another from the edition)
Category: Print Making
Style: Figurative
ARTWORK SIZE:
Height of Figure: 6'