SUGAR CANE CUTTER LEGS
When slavery was finally abolished in the Caribbean Islands in 1834, the slave owners were compensated and a replacement work force was sought in India. ‘Sugar cane cutter legs’ were the characteristics which the press gangs in Kolkata and Chennai were looking for in the indentured workers sent to labour in the fields of Trinidad. Other workers, the so called ‘Boat Brahmin’ came willingly, looking for a new life amongst the cane fields.
Pictorially, Khan’s work takes us through 5,000 years of art; referencing the ancient traditions of Indian Chittara, Madhubani and Saura painting, through to the futurism of Op Art and the generative art of fractals. With their boldly choreographed layers of rhythmic black lines and blocks of intense colour, Khan’s digital drawings rendered on fabric make us physically aware of the entwined folklore and histories of the island – an irresistible reminder that the carnival of history is really just a brief fold in time. Stories have power and Khan’s drawings are not stilled or confined by their surface but pulsate and radiate, a joyful blend of syncretic symbolism, pulling the viewer into a vortex of fable and form.
Written by Celia Bailey
An exhibition of drawings, prints and films by Keith Khan.
