Catalouge for tracing Erasures, a show curated by Abiram Podwal

The paintings of Ashok tread the problematic line of voyeurism and hidden fantasies of the male. As known vision itself is invested with power basing on who sees whom. The tradition of easel painting right from renaissance times had time and again reiterated the structure of power operating through paintings particularly in its representation of women. The objectification and animalistically representing the other gender has been a major genre if we separate the representations by male artists. The voyeur has been always present in the history of female representation. The artist by exercising his own fantasies gives an opening or exposes the body to the viewer (male) and allows the body to be consumed without any hindrance from the subject represented. This has been contradicted and fought and is continued to be fought in all spheres of representational politics till now. But the since the societal awareness regarding the representation of the “other” particularly women is not conducive because of the structure through which the discourses operate upon. The fine art academic structures here and in many places are still reproducing the bygone discourse on art. This may include still life, life study, anatomy etc. though there are very few academies which still follow the nude studies; they are done majorly with the clothing of morality. Rarely has this discussion of the systemic insufficiencies of including alternative discourses of gender accommodated in the courses. Reading the works of ashok one easily slips into the position the painting offers. The voyeur in the painting accommodates the viewer if he is male in his position and grants him the easy condition of consuming the female body. Thus by reiterating that he has the access for the vision the painting furthers the pleasure not only in the surface but reproduces the fantasies to be practised elsewhere. Though he attempts at representing pregnant women they are juxtaposed with the same desire (re) producing images in circulation there by creates the friction with the subjects intend.
In the painting “she” ashok tries to over come restrictions and attempts an auto critique at the very representation itself. The painting is the representation probably of a single nude in 2 ways. One of them is represented near realistically. The other has been done in a similar way but has been erased. This deliberate erasing “unables” the viewer’s fantasies to be prolonged. The erasure here not only enables a dialogue within representations but mediates the idea of the politics of representation in a particular manner.
V.Divakar,
Art Critic,Bangalore.