The artists
From the comic "Corridor.
A Graphic Novel", Penguin Books India, 2004
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From the comic "Corridor. A Graphic Novel", Penguin Books India, 2004
Sarnath Banerjee's comics, his graphical novels and animations deal with fragmented realities in the cities of the subcontinent; they bring the past and the present in relation, in order to examine stereotypes, myths and morality in post-colonial India. The exhibition "Layers of Times and Spaces" will present an animation as well as extracts from his second illustrated novel "The Barn Owl's wonderous Capers". When he published his first comic novel "Corridor" in 2004, it immediately attracted the attention of the Indian media. In "Corridor", the author presents himself as elegant and eloquent, and examines the social conditions in contemporary India. He takes the readers along on a journey through fragile post-colonial spaces in the metropolises New Delhi and Kalkutta that are almost unknown in the West. His second novel is now being eagerly expected. It deals with the scandals and eccentricities in 19th century Kalkutta, and their influence on personalities of the city of today: Shalom Hakon from Aleppo moves to Kalkutta in the early 19th century to trade with sleazy novelties and exquisite luxury goods. Soon after, he is being accepted by the white Nawabs of the East Indian Company and the Bengali elite. He experiences a world of scandals, which he captures in the manner of the yellow press in a book. This book, entitled "The Barn Owl's wonderous Capers", is what the rest of the story is about, finally leading into our times. "Small art" and "small media" as "mythologies" (Roland Barthes) can be much more direct when criticising the mechanisms of power than the official, "big" art. Banerjee's stories are created from a sequence of recollections. The unconventional way of dealing with time and a multicultural accumulation in the city becomes visible through gaps and the inner strife of those who are captured in it. In this muddle of things straining our senses, we are confronted with a fragmentised narrative that we have to connect for ourselves. The every-day rivalry between word and image is duplicated in the illustrated novel, reflecting the dialectics of adjustment and resistance. With his works, Sarnath Banerjee procures the comic book, which is traditionally characterised as humorous, full of action and fantasy, a position as a legitimate literary medium.
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