Concept note
December 2015
Exhibition: PK – Man & Superman, India Art Fair, New Delhi, India
The Great American Depression gave us the strong jawline of Superman, who beat up abusive husbands and corrupt senators. Once teenagers began reading comics, we got Spider-man; the space race gave us the Fantastic Four. Racial issues contributed to the X-men and the rise in urban crime in the 80’s gave us The Punisher and new interpretations of Batman. People love Superheroes because they defuse this idea of a leader, which is a sort of fantasy of democracy where all sectors of the country (and the world) can work together against a common threat.
“The reality in the fantasy here is that we want our leaders, for all of their skill in oration and leadership, to also be able to pick up a weapon and start representing us in the trenches as well as on the podiums. So as we watch Spiderman fight off hordes of bad guys with nothing else but his power, agility and spider thread we are only reminded, once again, that hetirelessly fought for all of us, on every front we could think of. This is not only folk legend, but it is the realm of the superhero.
In the same tradition of bravado and innocence are our heroes of today, like PK, who are sort of super heroic alien forms with big hearts and all the unanswered questions about evil in the modern day sociopolitical life.
This installation of Spiderman/ PK/ Superhero is an attempt to demonstrate the cultural relevance of these characters and stories in our ordinary lives.