Note by Dr Deepak Kannal

Ganesh employs a very simple syntax for his expression. Simple and diirect. No intricacies, no complexities. The vocabulary is limited. The signifiers-inherited. Obviously derived from the metaphors generated out of collective ,subconscious, Understandable the cultural context. Like the coweris shells, eggs, Khadau etc. loaded vvith conventional connotations. But that hardly matters. I think, he is one of the very few contemporary Indian Sculptors, who have recognised the essentially non-discursive nature of their medium.

Ganesh Gohain’s pre-occupation with the palpable, the temporal is betrayed through his indifferent, iconic parole. The pent up energy throbbing under the apparently inert surface of these imposing images, reminds me of the primordial vigour of Egyptian Sculpture.

Ganesh Gohain claims to portray nothingness in his ‘We will never be there’, sculpting the air and providing a pedestal to that unseen sculpture. The other sculpture by the same artist ‘I am you’ is built in sound and the visible part of the sculpture once again is the pedestal and not the sculpture proper.


(The writer is Ex Dean and Head Of Art History Dept, Faculty of Fine Arts, MS University of Vadodara)