Ivory Eyes

Through a surrealistic depiction of objects, Prabhakar Barwe succeeded in inciting viewers to look closer at what he was trying to depict. In Ivory Eyes, for instance, the artist sought to focus perhaps on the make-believe eyes of statutes of important personages—in ancient times, ivory was used to form the white of the idol’s eyes—alluding to the usage of a rare natural material such as ivory to give ‘vision’ to the high and the mighty long after they have departed from the earth. It is a stark comment on the violence committed against one animal—the elephant that generates ivory—to immortalise the other animal, or human being, sitting on top of the survival pyramid on earth.