SCAF – Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation

Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation (SCAF) will present Aquasaurus by dynamic Indian artist Jitish Kallat as its final exhibition for 2008.

Aquasaurus is a monumental seven-metre long skeletal sculpture of a water-tanker morphing to become prehistoric creature that personifies the radical transformation of Indian city life. Resembling a prized natural-history museum piece,Aquasaurus – with its grinning mouth, menacing teeth and interior void – is both inviting and repulsive.

The rapid pace of India’s growth and unchecked urban development means that water is becoming increasingly scarce for millions of people. While pumps bore deeper into the ground and groundwater levels drop alarmingly, the Public Works Department provides a subsidised service to the people of the city, allowing them to buy tanker-loads of water delivered to their doorstep.

Jitish Kallat’s art melds socio-political comment with humour and compassion. The immediate environment of Mumbai provides the grist for his artistic mill, which is global in reach. Painting, photography, sculpture, collage and digital elements are all utilised by the artist to underline his central thesis of human struggle and resilience within the politics of catastrophe.

Kallat gained an MFA at the Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy School of Art in Mumbai, quickly establishing his reputation with regular solo exhibitions in India and abroad. His work has been represented in the 1st Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale, Japan (1999); the 7th Havana Biennale, Cuba (2000); ‘Century City: Art & Culture in the Modern Metropolis’, Tate Modern, London (2001); the Amory Show, New York (2004); the 5th Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane; and the 6th Gwangju Biennale, Korea (both 2006).