Patachitra

For many centuries, the Chitrakars of Orissa have painted cloth panels - Patachitra - depicting the great shrine and ritual worship of Jagannatha, Lord of the Cosmos, in Puri.

These panels temporarily replace the painted wooden images of the deities Jagannatha, Balabhadra, and Subhadra, when these are removed for period renewal or for a festival. They are also offered as pilgrim souvenirs. Bhikari Moharana, a Patachitra painter skilled in traditional representations, here assembles a collage of science-fiction imagery from a variety of print media. He creates a compelling image of a cosmic force machine, an omnipotent mandala, a nerve centre for the command and control of a near-future universe.

Retaining a traditional palette of mineral pigments, he invests the image with a kind of variety and depth of detail that are now rarely seen in the art. As the viewer is drawn in, multiple levels of structure and space unfold. The eye is trapped between illusion and awe. Hidden in the labyrinth of this giant orb is a single human head, inconspicuous yet eternally present and aware.