Important Notice

Borrowing and manipulating some of the most arresting images from the current news media, T.V. Santhosh's body of work exposes what the artist understands to be the technology-aided degeneration of civilization and its present equation with a culture of violence. In the artist's opinion, science and warfare have formed a dangerous alliance; one that negates the progress that the former has achieved in times of peace. According to Ranjit Hoskote,... Borrowing and manipulating some of the most arresting images from the current news media, T.V. Santhosh's body of work exposes what the artist understands to be the technology-aided degeneration of civilization and its present equation with a culture of violence. In the artist's opinion, science and warfare have formed a dangerous alliance; one that negates the progress that the former has achieved in times of peace. According to Ranjit Hoskote, Santhosh's art is "…attentive to the specific idioms of contemporary global conflict, to the diabolical pact between knowledge and terror, the skewed antagonism between puissant globality and weakened locality" ("Transfigurations at the Margin of Blur", One Hand Clapping/Siren, the Guild Art Gallery exhibition catalogue, Mumbai, 2003, unpaginated).

In the present lot, a large, vivid diptych, Santhosh paints the face of a young soldier, first at a distance on the left panel, and then in uncomfortable close-up on the right. In the thick of battle equipped with helmet and goggles, the man's face speaks both of grit and fear, determination and pause. At the same time, his wide eyes and slightly parted lips betrays the inexperience of his youth. From the artist's graphic title, When Your Target Cries for Mercy, the viewer is alerted to the crisis that the soldier is presently faced with, probably for the first time in his career. A target, not distanced by the viewfinder on his barrel anymore, has suddenly become a fellow human being, pleading for his life. Torn between killing and being merciful, between being faithful to his command and being faithful to his heart, the soldier must live forever with what he decides in the split second that Santhosh has captured in this epic piece.

Of the sparks that fly around his face in the right panel, two have formed a large cross over the soldier's features. This cross, frozen in the moment that Santhosh has painted, represents perhaps the artist's final word on the matter – violence and war can scar entire generations, robbing the innocence of childhood away.

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