India Shining 1 (Gandhi and the Laptop)
2007
For the artist Debanjan Roy, Gandhi is a tense symbol for the nation of India. In his lifetime, Gandhi advocated for the poor and the marginalized and he recommended that society should emulate a traditional village. Nowadays, as India advances on the global stage and enters late-stage capitalism, Gandhi has become a national symbol for wealth, progress, and advancement. The viewer of this work confronts this dual symbolic usage of Gandhi by witnessing Gandhi posing not with traditional symbols, such as a spinning wheel, but with contemporary technologies, such as a laptop and headphones.
Fiberglass, acrylic paint, quilted mat, and bolster pillow
27 x 46 x 30 in. (68.6 x 116.8 x 76.2 cm)
Gift of Dipti and Rakesh Mathur in honor of Mimi Gardner Gates
2021.33
Provenance: The artist; [Aicon Gallery, New York]; purchased from gallery by Dipti and Rakesh Mathur, San Francisco, California; to Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 2021
