Osian's Auction Catalogue India The Passionate Detachment | February 2001

60 THE PASSIONATE DETACHMENT 19 SURENDRAN NAIR (b.1956) Man on the Wrong Foot S/d in English, on reverse. Acrylic on canvas, 1994 180 x 120 cm. (54.0 x 48.0”) “The problem for me is that nostalgia fails to go beyond echoing the alienation of a crisis ridden time. It may be an act of necessity to a point, but becomes more of a conformist’s pressure in its frantic attempts to realise the problematics of the present time/context/ situation/location. Nostalgia is called forth to come to terms with and to navigate the present, and perhaps to control it too. More dangerous than its relation with the present, is its relation with the past. In its desperation to criticize the present it forgets to look critically at memories. The energy of its assertion on tackling the present becomes suspect in itself and dubious in it’s purpose. At a personal level all this may be accptable, but when nostalgia takes a “collective trip” it ends up presenting an extreme chauvinistic projection. Isn’t that one of the facets which contributed to the tragedy at Ayodhaya? “(Surendran Nair, in Sakshi Gallery ExC. 1995 ). Rs. 75,000 - 125,000 $ 1,595 - 2,660