Visual artist and filmmaker

Born : 1975, Durg (Chhattisgarh) India

Education : 2001 Master of Arts

When you first gaze at Tushar Waghela’s artworks, you can’t help being intrigued and perplexed at the same time; one side of his studio is full of bright coloured canvases with flat brush strokes, tribal motifs and revenue stamps and on the other side you have Xray artworks. As a curious soul I started progressing my interaction with Tushar and I realised that although every piece of art is complete in itself and concludes a story within yet all his works are an extension of each other. It’s a journey which he has lived for last decade ripping off the layers of truth under the burden of “Development” of his humble village Bastar (Part of Chattisgarh). A farmer sitting on a broken rupee, a family’s world being carried on a rickshaw, a despair farmer standing next to a “Proposed site” board giving a final adieu to the farmland which was once his most prized possession now being converted into a concrete structure oozing out ounces of black cloud. A former master of his life and livelihood is suddenly a slave left to the mercy of a few desperate businessman. The “Revenue Stamp Paper” in the background reminds us of an age-old tale of Faust selling his soul to the Devil for diabolical favours, the outcome in the end is wrath. The artist here silently mocks the term “Growth and Development” and also puts forth a question – Are we all relevant? “THE SOUL” juxtaposes works from his two series, “Land Sold” and” Binary: The Schizophrenia of Existence” also known as The X-Ray series of which the XRAY series is being exhibited for the first time for public viewing. The XRAY series is the deskinned version of the Land Sold series, layering off the truth that we see with our naked eyes. In the end it is for us to choose between the truth and the myth. However intense the characters and the message of Tushar’s artworks is, what also cannot be missed the culture of Bastar and the emotions that every character wear on its sleeve with an innocent satire and mockery.