Sunset In the Valley

Krishnaraj Chonat’s installations play with materials and textures to create a sense of unease. In other works, he has covered entire furniture ensembles with fake pearls, or fleece, or made cakes out of cracked earth. By calling this work Sunset in the Valley, Chonat suggests that we are about to see a pleasant sight. What is on show however, is a canvas depicting cracked, parched earth, which we should connect with the idea of famine, hunger and despair. However the binoculars provided to view this piece of earth have their lenses occluded with pearls. On looking through them, the viewer would see only whiteness, glossy and out of focus. The work makes an ironic comment on our attempts to ‘look’ versus our willingness to ‘see’.