The Kali-Odalisque
Manish Harijan, 2015
Acrylic
173 x 100 cm

© Prithivi Bahadur Pande

Look into her eyes. Yes, you, she is looking at you. She reminds you of Ingres’ Odalisque and the deity Kali, does she not? She is beautiful and she is not. She is a mythical figure and a pop icon.

Female bodies have long been used in art to show the idealised female form with demure expressions. Here, the serene eyes of the blue skinned-woman contradicts the fierce tongue she sticks out. She symbolises the contradictions of ideas that exist as you move through the world, in histories, in identities, in the shape-shifting nature of being the “Other”. Who that “Other” is, changes according to time and context. The blue-skinned woman is a rebel but she is not angry or fearful. She simply does not accept the expectations of the world. As an Odalisque, she is told she has luxury to be free, but she knows freedom – that crowned liberty – has long been dead. It sits by her side, in skeletal form. The woman, with her Kali-tongue, could be a deity, or, with the languid form of her body, a western artwork wrapped in references.

The centre point of this canvas is not in the centre. I composed it from the left to right. Filled with symbols that question contemporary social issues that resonate globally, it poses one major question: do we have a local identity in this global world? The West and East clash, mesh, impose their opacity and demand transparency. Who decides what is made visible and how? What is left in the shadows? Who is in control of our narratives?

Bhairabh flies toward the blue-skinned woman with flower petals, which are direct references to Botticelli’s Birth of Venus and Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam. They are at once symbols of freedom and symbols of showmanship displayed by the one who controls the story – currencies contextualised to justify slavery in the age of capitalism. The Odalisque’s form questions the imagined ideas of beauty in both the East and the West, giving the idealised, unrealistic female form the ferocity of Kali, whose powerful figure instils dread. The skull of Liberty, still crowned, signals the death of freedom, of ideas, and also relates the composition to the garland of human skulls Kali is usually seen wearing in her mythological form while sticking her tongue out at the world. The monkey at the female’s feet is the masculine figure who protects and destroys. The painting is meant to seduce and repel at the same time.