HEAVEN (AND THAT OTHER PLACE)
WASWO X. WASWO

Galerie ISA is excited to welcome the American, Udaipur-based artist Waswo X. Waswo for his new show titled Heaven (And That Other Place).

In this new show, Waswo explores the concept of mortality, but through a spiritual lens, with the hope that an awakening to life’s wonders will replace the fear and trepidation that the ideas of death and beyond cause. In the title, the artist aims for ‘that other place’ to be imagined and seen through multiple or singular religious or non-denominational lenses, reflecting both the universality of this experience, but also its very uniqueness.

Waswo’s exhibition furthers the thesis explored in the artist’s last solo that was titled Last Ride in the Wild, Wild, East. That show held a strong reference to the Goddess Kalki, known for being a protector in extreme crisis, and also Kalki as an avatar of the chaos preceding the end of the world. But while the previous show thematically mirrored the divisive times we live in (still incredibly relevant today), Heaven and That Other Place is more personal; a crisis of faith (and fate!) approached via humor, wit and spirituality.

While the works in this show do have Waswo’s signature light-heartedness, he and his collaborators have, over the past few years, undergone a stylistic shift, as well as an evolution in concept and narrative. These are not unwelcome and have provided a new momentum to a practice that continues to address serious themes with the intent of disrupting the notion that levity and wit are analogous to superficiality.

The fulcrum of this show is the triptych titled The Three Places: Descension, Heaven and Ascension. In ‘Heaven’ Waswo has created a bucolic vision, Earthly in its vitality, reiterating the message of living in awe and wonder of our natural world rather than in a constant state of the terror of what lies beyond. On deeper examination of these works, it’s evident that themes of co-existence and a respect for the environment are undeniable; the artist emphasizing synergy with nature as the best and most attainable form of heaven.

Paradoxically, A Day in Country shows Waswo’s whimsical alter-ego riding on the back of his assistant Ganpat’s motorcycle through a large herd of goats. Situated nearby, a life-size installation of black terracotta goats, with the figure of the Greek god Pan resting among them, complete with golden horns and glowing demonic eyes, questions the assumption that this beautiful world is the only paradise on offer. The viewer is left to create their own response to this perplexing query.

Another work, an expansive painting on gold leaf, beautifully titled The Unbearable Joy of Life, raises further questions about the precariousness and instability of an individual’s experience of living.

Throughout the series, Waswo and his collaborators, Chirag Kumawat, Dalpat Jingar, Shankar Kumawat and Banti Jinger, explore a contemporary style which, while wholly their own, is reminiscent of Mughal and Mewari traditional painting. The works are created using stone pigments, French gouache, and real gold on traditional Wasli paper.

Ever present is the ‘Fedora Man’, Waswo’s avatar, a constant in all of his works. While the figure is known to bring a smile to viewers, he also is an Everyman of sorts, representing the collective ‘us’. This alter-ego is perpetually lost, culturally confused, and constantly ‘Othered’; not unlike many in our world where literal and figurative walls breed xenophobia.

A new leitmotif appears in these works: the presence of the Owl. A popular figure in mythology, the nocturnal bird is a creature imbued with varying, often contradictory cultural connotations, ranging from an oracle of wisdom and a symbol of fertility to a signifier of bad luck and misfortune. The Owl that Waswo uses is taken from a Company School painting, and seems omniscient, serving as an oracle of history, and also bearing silent witness to the spectacle that contemporary society has become.

It is this very dichotomy that Waswo explores. As an American living in India, and a contemporary artist working with a centuries-old tradition, his work is replete with an examination of identity, of cultural contrasts and contexts, of respecting heritage and understanding society-specific nuances. The Owl, then, with its representation of wisdom in the West and the ironic duality of wealth and foolishness in the East, specifically in India, is the perfect symbol to emphasize the dialogues that the artist has continually engaged in during the trajectory of his career.

While death and the art of dying, a harmonious co-existence of the spiritual and the natural, and an awareness of the after-life dominate this series, there’s also a strong undercurrent of themes and ideas that have been intrinsically reflected in Waswo’s works over the past years—Orientalism, inclusion, an understanding of history, the nuances of identity and the cultural differences and similarities that separate and unite us all.

Priyanka R. Khanna