Pied Piper of Hamlyn - Put your money where your mouth is...

'Pied Piper of Hamlyn - Put your money where your mouth is... ', (1986-1987) is a large-scale mixed media work incorporating acrylics, pastel, gouache and collage on Fabriano paper. Made by Sutapa Biswas following her first return visit to India between 1986 and 1987, after her family emigrated to England from India in 1966. Biswas travelled widely across India during her return sojourn visiting family and friends, but also visiting major ancient architectural sites and cities which Biswas had read about and heard of about from her father, but had not previously experienced in person.

Amongst her travels, Biswas with her India-based family visited the ancient caves and architectural structures of Ajanta and Ellora. Located near Aurangabad in Maharashtra, these now recognised UNESCO World Heritage sites and caves are renowned for their ancient, hand-carved rock architecture, some of which features 30 Buddhist cave temples adorned with famous murals dating from the 2nd century BC to 600 AD, as well as sculptures both figurative and more formally abstract. Biswas describes her experience of visiting these sites as being "life-changing and transformative" in terms of her perception of both time and space in relation to the wider cosmos. Travelling through these sites, Biswas noted that sections of the sculptures that perhaps once adorned these ancient sites appeared to be missing - almost as if they had been 'hacked' out and removed. Indeed sections of these ancient 'missing' structures appeared not dissimilar to antiquities that Biswas had previously seen in auction houses of London and other major cities.

Biswas photographed her experience and time at Ajanta and Ellora. The Kailasa Temple forms a key visual component within the background to Biswas's work Pied Piper of Hamyln - Put your money where your mouth is.... Its collaged surface includes details of Biswas's family members with whom she had travelled to this historic and ancient site. The subject matter of this painting confronts both the past, present and future in terms of 'everyday life' and existence in relation to the wider context of the global economic and socio-political forces at play.