The Seeker, 2014

Basel 2018
The Seeker

Chemould Prescott Road

Work on Paper
Charcoal and watercolour on paper pasted on cotton textile
197.0 x 221.0 (厘米)
77.6 x 87.0 (吋)
A man, for it is always a man who strides forward and onwards in tales of progress, forges ahead enchanted by the demons of progress under the blanket of a deep blue sky lit by thousands of stars, mute witnesses to his anguish. Driven by an insatiable desire to conquer Olympian heights, this seeker of an unnamed utopia is in a state of perpetual torment; stretched apart by the forces of time and history, but too numb to feel his own pain. In his relentless pursuit, he seals our fate. We all are conscripted willingly or unwillingly in the stories of glorious but ill-fated empires that eventually crumble into dust. As a society, we are obsessed with the idea of progress, but there is a vast chasm between what we aspire to and the reality we inhabit. This painting attempts to render the emotions – the anger, despair, and self-torment that is caused by our desires.