🧾 DETAILS
Artist: Jangarh Singh Shyam
Year: c. early–mid 1990s
Medium: Print on paper (pen & ink–based composition)
Dimensions: 26 x 21 inches
Category: Gond
Room: Origins / Ritual Systems
🧠 DESCRIPTION
This composition presents a hybrid figure combining avian and terrestrial elements. The upper part suggests a bird-like form, while the lower part evokes an animal such as a deer or boar.
Both bodies are constructed through dense, repetitive patterning that extends across the entire surface. The figure is integrated into a continuous field, with no clear separation between elements.
🔍 SIGNIFICANCE
- Strong example of hybridization and metamorphic imagery in Gond art
- Moves beyond representation into conceptual and symbolic construction
- Demonstrates Jangarh Kalam through structure rather than motif
- Marks a shift from fixed identity toward transformation and ambiguity
- Introduces hybridity as a central visual principle
✍️ INTERPRETATION
The image does not resolve into distinct forms, but instead merges them into a single continuous structure. The continuity of pattern across both bodies suggests transformation rather than interaction.
Rather than depicting a specific event, the work constructs a system in which identities are fluid and boundaries between beings dissolve. The image operates as a space of transition, where form is not fixed but continuously reconfigured.
🧩 POSITION IN THE COLLECTION
This work plays a key conceptual role within the Gond segment.
It functions as:
- A point where forms become unstable and transformative
- A bridge between representation and system-based construction
- A key work for understanding how complexity emerges in Jangarh’s practice
This work dissolves the boundary between forms.
📚 PROVENANCE
Acquired from Gallery Chemould Prescott Road