Prajjwal Choudhury

Prajjwal Choudhury is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice engages with the socio-cultural significance of everyday objects. He gathers his preliminary fuel from objects like matchboxes to engineer his thought-provoking creations. These matchboxes have a realistic visual appeal, infused with wry humour that deceives the onlooker. The cover of the matchboxes features images of the works of world-famous artists—Andy Warhol, Picasso, Damien Hirst, Marcel Duchamp, Salvador Dalí, Dhruva Mistry, Jitish Kallat, Subodh Gupta, and Atul Dodiya. Each day, one comes across the word “recycle”—from one’s desktop to bottles and writing pads. The fear of suffocating the world to death continuously plagues our lives, and we think of recycling. For Prajjwal, the very technical sign of recycling becomes symbolic, and he attempts to relate it to a cultural phenomenon, the cyclic order becoming highly engaging. This cyclic order has multiple reference points and alludes to the social cycle. The making of an image, the creation of a persona—maybe of an actor, an artist, a politician, or even us—belongs to this rotating order of things. These images are reproduced in various media for different purposes. It is interesting to observe how even a persona is taken as a commodity and circulated and recirculated in our social environment. The forms may change, and the purpose may differ, but the cycle continues through production and reproduction by the social mechanism.

In his earlier works, he has delved deeper into the inquiry of consumerist human greed. The sculpture Commemoration—a memorial pole erected in celebration of “death”—requires the viewer to consider the given citation for each image. Each figure, made of wood, porcelain cast, and artificial denture, sits atop the other. The lowermost figurine represents the Goddess Mother of the World/Earth from the protohistoric period, a personification of nature, motherhood, fertility, creation, and destruction. “A smile,” inspired by the Laughing Buddha, “doesn’t necessarily mean happiness; it could be something else”—or merely an illusion of happiness. Human greed for luxury is driving nature, life, and the Earth to the brink of annihilation. Another figure, sitting on a pedestal, represents wealth, good luck, and prosperity. Above it is an iconography from the Hindu pantheon of “Aditi Uttanpada/Lajja Gauri”—a squatting female figure with exposed genitals in the position of giving birth—while the figure atop this draws direct inspiration from Chinese artist Yue Minjun’s imagery of a man with a smile on his face.

He earned his BVA in Painting from Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata (2003), and an MVA in Printmaking from Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Gujarat (2006). He later served as a visiting lecturer at the Faculty of Fine Arts, MSU Baroda (2011–2012). His accolades include the HK Kejriwal Young Artist Award (2012), the Seoksu Art Project—Asia Arts Link, South Korea (2011), the Merging Asian Artist Award at Art Gwangju, South Korea (2010), and the Asia Pacific Artists Fellowship at the National Art Studio, Goyang, South Korea (2010).

His selected group exhibitions and fairs include ‘Square is just a Shape,’ Art Cinnamon, Hong Kong (2013); ‘India Art Fair,’ LATITUDE 28, New Delhi (2012, 2013, 2019); ‘Slipping through the Cracks,’ curated by Meera Menezes, LATITUDE 28, New Delhi (2012); ‘Art:Gwangju 12,’ LATITUDE 28 booth, South Korea (2012); ‘Style File’ – Kolkata & New Delhi (2011 & 2012); ‘Continuum: Encapsulating Contemporary Indian Art,’ LATITUDE 28 & Art Cinnamon, Singapore (2011); ‘The Annual Show: Two Years of LATITUDE 28,’ LATITUDE 28, New Delhi (2012); ‘Re-claim/Re-cite/Re-cycle,’ curated by Bhavna Kakar, Bose Pacia, Kolkata (2009); ‘2nd India Art Summit,’ LATITUDE 28 & Project 88 booth, New Delhi (2009); ‘Re-claim/Re-cite/Re-cycle,’ Seven Art & LATITUDE 28, Travancore House, New Delhi (2009); ‘3rd India Art Summit,’ LATITUDE 28 booth, New Delhi (2011); ‘Delhi Contemporary Art Week,’ LATITUDE 28 booth, New Delhi (2019); ‘Other Anecdotes,’ curated by Ruchika’s Art Gallery & Niyatee Shinde, Space@SCION, Los Angeles (2011); ‘Notes on (Dis)appearance of the Real,’ curated by M. Vari & A. Lodaya, Stainless Steel Art Gallery, New Delhi (2010); ‘Digifesta, Speed of Earth – Media Art Festival,’ Gwangju Biennial Hall, South Korea (2010); and ‘India Awakens, Under the Banyan Tree,’ curated by Dr. Alka Pande, Essl Museum, Vienna (2010). His solo exhibition took place at Project 88, Mumbai, in (2008).

The artist is represented by LATITUDE 28, New Delhi.