Artists Balaji Ponna and Anni Kumari signal humanity’s impending doom in their exhibition ‘Mirrored Questions’ | Lifestyle News, The Indian Express

Artists Balaji Ponna and Anni Kumari signal humanity’s impending doom in their exhibition ‘Mirrored Questions’ | Lifestyle News, The Indian Express

Written by Pallavi Chattopadhyay |Updated: August 23, 2019 8:01:16 am

Artists Balaji Ponna and Anni Kumari signal humanity’s impending doom in their exhibition ‘Mirrored Questions’

The exhibition is showing Ponna’s 16 canvases that are riddled with metaphors and suggestions of human-inflicted calamities.

Ponna’s Most suitable pole to tie

Five years ago, Baroda-based artist Balaji Ponna found inspiration for a canvas in the most unlikeliest of places — an ATM near his house in Bhimavaram, Andhra Pradesh. The watchman would often tell him about his experiences, of how residents would ask him if he saw robbers and how the sounds of knocking doors and barking dogs are a constant in his life. It made Ponna re-think the lives of people whose nights are in contrast to ours. Like the border security forces stationed at night, the watchman observes the world in a completely different manner. Both leave their families behind at home and sacrifice their personal life for the sake of the country. This backdrop becomes the story for his canvas, The night watchman wife is virgin. Alert men in uniform, armed with torch lights, are seen searching for a possible threat at the border, even as the Indian flag flies high in a distance and a watchman sleeps on his chair.