In Bengal there’s a saying that goes, ‘Gacche kathal, gofe tel’. Loosely translated, it means the jackfruit is still on the tree, but the moustache is oiled and ready to keep the fruit’s sticky juices off. A pretty roundabout way of talking about allure and disillusionment. Artist Paresh Maity reinforces the irony embedded in this Bengali saying with his latest giant jackfruit sculpture. Cast in bronze, this massive jackfruit is titled ‘Urbanscape’. It weighs 7,000 kg and is currently parked right at the entrance of Kolkata’s Victoria Memorial.
The sculpture is one of the most striking exhibits at the inaugural edition of the Bengal Biennale that debuted on December 6 in Kolkata. It also exudes the sort of whimsical humour you’d expect from Maity. But why jackfruit? Maity tells me about his childhood and how he was quite taken in by the obnoxiously sized fruit with its spiky exterior, as it made him think of a fortified, walled structure to fend off enemies. To him, the cluster of seeds inside looked like a harmonious, but squeezed-in community, reminiscent of housing colonies jostling for space in urban cities. “‘Urbanscape’ is more than a sculptural critique. The kathal, or jackfruit, evokes memories of home and hearth,” says Maity, who condenses the urban condition into a giant fruit to point out the absurdity of expecting the fruit of city living while shying away from the grind that comes with it.
