Lot 52: JAISHRI ABICHANDANI

JAISHRI ABICHANDANI B. 1969 ALLAH HU AKHBAR Leather whips, nails, wire, paint, swarovski crystals Executed in 2008 65 by 450 cm. (23½ by 177½ in.)

The Empire Strikes Back: Indian Art Today, Saatchi Gallery, London, January - May, 2010

Dirty Jewels, exhibition catalogue, Rossi & Rossi, London 2010, p.17, illustrated p. 16

The Empire Strikes Back: Indian Art Today, exhibition catalogue, Saatchi Gallery, London, 2010, p. 64, illustrated pp. 62-63

Bodhi Art, Berlin

This work, the first from a series of three, composed of red, green, and black leather whips, wire and glittering Swarowski crystals are combined to spell the words 'God is Great' in Arabic. The colours are reminiscent of the Iraqi flag, referencing America's war on terror.

The whips were made in India, where Abichandani was raised. Although they reference flagellation leading to spiritual ecstasy that is common to Hinduism, Islam and Christianity, they also allude to the history of slavery and popular movies like Indiana Jones. The irony of this art lies in the secular place of its creation, contrasted with its non-secular subject matter.

"Carefully crafting the materiality of image, text and video to make visible and question ethno-histories of women from multiple contexts, Abichandani's work forces discomfort and uncertainty, and arrives at critical self-reflection via those sensations, by employing politically charged media images that she embellishes only just so." (Uzma Z. Rizvi, Dirty Jewels, Rossi & Rossi, London, 2010, p.17)