Catastrophe

On closer inspection of A. A. Raiba’s art, there’s a lot for viewers to decipher. There are potential—and potent—meanings in his art. These can be suggestive, sometimes even bursting with erotica that the artist teases us with. Catastrophe, Raiba’s work from the Sixties, illustrates this area of his visual vocabulary perfectly. Though classified as still life, Catastrophe, when examined closely, has strong sexual innuendos with various elements—half-cut apple; a bird’s genitalia; a queerly shaped bottle, among others—placed strategically.