Born and raised in Kerala, Surendran Nair asserts that the experiences and memories of his early years in the state continue to influence his thinking and body of work. In addition to the personal, Nair’s narrative paintings are shaped by the artist’s immense database of trivia, covering fields as diverse as mythology and global politics. In their bizarre combinations of the personal and the historical, the religious and the irreverent, the... Born and raised in Kerala, Surendran Nair asserts that the experiences and memories of his early years in the state continue to influence his thinking and body of work. In addition to the personal, Nair’s narrative paintings are shaped by the artist’s immense database of trivia, covering fields as diverse as mythology and global politics. In their bizarre combinations of the personal and the historical, the religious and the irreverent, the artist’s arresting images transport viewers to new, fantastical dimensions. From such neutral vantage points, viewers can look back on the contexts and situations that shape their identities, learning more about themselves in the process.

The present lot, one of the watercolours from a series of ten that the artist painted in 2004, is titled Darwaja Kholo, or ‘Open the Door’. Commenting on the innate curiosity of human beings, much like Lewis Carroll in Alice in Wonderland, Nair presents in this work one of the extraordinary situations that may be encountered on ‘opening the door’. Here, a woman dressed traditionally in regal purple and gold expectantly waits for the viewer with her pet gazelle; a doorkeeper, perhaps, offering a ride into one of the artist’s wonderlands.

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