Description

A striking fibre sculpture that reimagines the iconography of Mahatma Gandhi through a lens of modern paradox. Cast in vivid red and rendered in a glossy, seamless finish, the figure reclines in a lounge chair—arms folded behind the head, legs extended in ease. This posture, evocative of leisure and detachment, sharply contrasts with Gandhi’s historical embodiment of asceticism, activism, and moral rigor.

Roy’s choice of material and color—synthetic fibre and saturated crimson—further amplifies the oxymoronic tension. The industrial sheen subverts the handmade ethos of khadi, while the red evokes both revolutionary fervor and consumerist allure. The integration of the chair into the body blurs boundaries between subject and object, suggesting a fusion of identity with comfort, or perhaps complicity.

This work is not merely a portrait but a provocation: it invites viewers to confront the evolving cultural memory of Gandhi, the commodification of resistance, and the uneasy coexistence of legacy and leisure in contemporary India.