Spotlight on Nimesh Patel

Nimesh Patel’s works show a jumble of objects - electronics, metal parts, wires and dials as a background to represent the cacophony of modern existence. Patel’s urban landscapes are illustrated as garbage heaps of cars, factories, and pollution, all neatly connected by an intricate network of wires. One of his earlier drawings depicts a wall of human beings impotently shooting spears and arrows at this junk heap of technology across a great divide. Patel’s work makes us question the progress of a world in which we are hooked-up, linked-in and tied-up to a constant barrage of information and misinformation, sound and sound-bytes, blocking out our finer sensibilities, sensitivities and humanity.

Works from his recent series “Reproduction before Revolution” shows a controlled format which is hybrid of miniature painting and comic strip layouts. The underlying narrative, continuous or splintered as the case may be, defies a literal readability in spite of the very specific juxtaposition of super imposed images which constitute it. It represents a unity which is connective rather than whole. Nimesh portrays the production house, one of a kind with simultaneous exploration of the repercussions of its products on the society. The seduction and intimacy offered by laboriously rendered images, far from being repellent or horrific, makes an everlasting statement which finds complete acceptance in our minds.