An artist who trespasses established formal and aesthetic categories to deviate from the beaten path, invariably presents an engaging viewing experience. Walking the precarious edge between abstraction and figuration and defying the fixations with European Modernism, Jai Zharotia chases the poetic and fantastic realms in his art, drawing inspiration from both miniatures and select modern art movements.
As Jai spills out an imaginative representation of life, his minimal yet marvellous watercolours overthrow our sense of the familiar, sabotaging our tamed/habitual ways of seeing the world. Within a nebulous ground, characters emerge in an illumined zone of consciousness, awakened by their latent powers.
The female gymnast sparked Jai’s imagination as one such character that makes us marvel at the elasticity of the mind and body, as she turns the impossible into possible and transforms into an unbelievable spectacle. Moved by the stunning feats of stretching, arching and effortless contorting to transform into an endless ring in space, Jai painted her as an electrifying image, radiating energy and light. Her boneless linear armature in its kinetic swirls was abstracted as if in a ‘flash of lightning’--her swift flights off the ground were caught in mid-air. Jai’s relentless articulation of her image perhaps signifies his secret desire for conquest, but more than that, it brings him closer to the philosophical truth of life summed up in the very ‘act of balancing’. Life is a precarious slope or a trapeze act where danger and fear are constant shadows, reminders of the existential trap that is difficult to evade.
Luqman Ali is another character that Jai is persistently drawn to. Fictitious and yet so real, Luqman was invented by the poet Soumitra Mohan as a character incessantly in search of himself. By way of fantasy, Luqman attempts to overcome childhood fears, his inadequacies and contradictions. Luqman is hero and villain, active and passive, with positive and negative shades, challenged by mysterious forces and unknown enemies. Often hounded by his own shadow and apparition, he tries but fails to cut his desire with a sword or protect his mortal life through sheer physical power. A trickster of sorts, a dreamer at times, Luqman for Jai represents the duality of life, the friction between good and evil, escape and surrender.
The puppeteer who juggles masks and identities with equal ease is another favourite of the artist. He puts the real world on trial, masking and unmasking identities, subjugating the puppets to his will. Games of manipulation and illusion are not merely performed in the circus ring but also played out in social and political situations. For Jai, the puppeteer, juggler and the clown represent the interface of the comic and tragic forces that co-exist in our daily life.
But the most enduring of Jai’s themes are located in the realm of dream and mystery. Meaning becomes fuzzier as Jai confounds reality, merging the real and the absurd, so that ordinary experiences inherit improbable conclusions. The composition is often left suspended with miscarried thoughts and partial suggestions, allowing the viewers to either connect, decipher or resolve the incomplete riddles. Choosing a medium that helps submerge his dreamy states in soft watery blurs and gestures, he equally adapts it to paint precise forms creatively patterned and sectioned to flout the rules of tonal build-ups and illusionist representation. The birds and bulls are fine examples of this pictorial style. A single tree when examined closely reveals a human arm feeding fruits to a human head appearing on the trunk. In another, painterly daubs that follow free hand gestures build up the body of the (t)horny monster like creature, overpowering the seated woman.
The charm of the world of fantasy is indeed seductive as it edits life for pleasure and self-gratification.
