Exhibition: Jagannath Panda’s work reflects his relationship with cities

It’s perhaps providence that Jagannath Panda’s return to exhibiting after an almost eight-year hiatus coincided with the worst rains in Mumbai since the floods of 2005. The inference from both is the same – an old lesson about sustainable, measured development will be pushed aside, yet again. In his latest solo show, Crystal Cities, at the Vadehra Art Gallery, Panda brings back the surreal and damning power of his alchemic study of man and his relationship with the city.
Crystal Cities begins with a couple of giant multi-media works titled ‘Wonderland’ through which Panda points to the awe one feels when he or she first encounters the metropolis. “I came to Delhi for the first time in 1989. Back then I couldn’t speak any of the languages [spoken] here,” he says. “It was aggressive and I was an outsider. But still, to me, the city immediately felt like a place of opportunity. And it has been so ever since,” he says.

2 September 2017