Tushar Sahay (b. 1994) series Mental Turbulence was borne out of the monotony of a daily three to four hour commute on the Delhi Metro to and from his studio at Garhi. Cramped
in the urban jungle of the metropolis, Sahay found his fellow passengers slumped over and exhausted not only by the weight of their backpacks, but also from the sandblasting experience of the city they call home. The dark, rich tones of mezzopoint bring into sharp focus the weight of mental stress depicted in the tense faces of his fellow travelers trapped in a train carriage, but possibly also in situations and circumstances that are beyond their control. Depicted as monkeys/langurs that were commonplace in Sahay’s village, the gures in the works also appear threating and vengeful, Urban Naxalites, who can be wild and attack. Produced around the time of the pandemic, Sahay’s work resonates, given our collective experience as a society during the last two years, when lockdowns left us isolated and at times without hope, despite the hyper connectivity of the digital age.