Animal Planet

Micro seems to have never been the concern of Jagannath Panda,the Oriya artist who now lives amid the skyscrapers of Gurgaon. The 39-year-old,who shot into the limelight with life-size sculptures at Nature Morte in 2005,now comes with “The Action of Nowhere”,a brilliant,macabre collection of 14 works. In The Being: II (above),a life-size rhinoceros,swathed in fine silk,seems cowed-down in its pretty artifical covering,while a vile hyena positioned against an urban backdrop seems to cackle maniacally in the canvas An Avatar — the ghoulish animals at odds with their instincts and the environment.

“We are living in a universe where poaching and rapid deforestation have deprived the animals of their habitat,bringing them closer to urban environment,” says Panda. His fascination with animals began during his two-year stint at the Royal College of Art,London,when foot-and-mouth disease broke out. “I started clicking pictures of animals. On my return to India,I continued with it,” he says.

In the Dark (below) is a rather disturbing work — it is a sculpture of a bat in acrylic and fiberglass,hanging precariously from a branch,its wings spread out. Meanwhile,a scene of car crash plays out in the canvas The Lost Site,a red convertible tangled in a web of branches. Now and then,a cheerful deviation seeps in — a red parrot perches in House Plant,a tongue-in-cheek mixed-media work,while ties and grinders hang from barren branches. Panda surprises with his strange use of material — the giant Nest is made of discarded strings and plastic balls,while the skins of animals are made of brocades — as though when animals lose their forests,they are kept alive,sewn together,with the sorry remains of cityscapes.

The works begin at Rs 4.5 lakh and go up to Rs 30 lakh. The show is on till September 5. Contact 41740215