Tallur L.N.: Chromatophobia - The Fear of Money

Arario Gallery Cheonan is proud to host Chromatophobia: The Fear of Money, the solo exhibition of India-born artist-in-residence L.N. Tallur (b. 1971) from May 6th throughout June 26th. This exhibition presents Tallur’s unique body of work produced since his solo exhibition in Arario Seoul in 2007, created and developed through the artist’s solo exhibitions in Arario New York, Arario Beijing and other top galleries around the world.
Tallur’s works spark the viewer’s interest with rare kind of exotic visual elements that cannot be traced from European, Asian or African influences. Tallur’s works are distinctly different from African folk art tradition which has many times been used as a motif in contemporary art, or from Chinese or North East Asian contemporary art that is already familiar to Korea. Tallur’s works are partially based on the traditions of Indian sculpture and architecture; however, his works are distinctively exotic because his approach to traditional Indian sculpture is from a wholly different level.

Since majoring in Painting and Museology in India and studying contemporary art in Leeds Metropolitan University in England, Tallur has been developing his art practice in both Korea and India for 8 years. Tallur’s stance on the Indian traditional culture is somewhat distanced as he has spent a long time away from home; thus, although his works employ Indian folk handicraft as the medium, they destroy icons of traditional Indian culture and deny Indian tradition. However, his sensational works aren’t meant to only make the viewers uncomfortable. By attaching mechanical apparatus or pouring concrete on statues of Buddha, Tallur’s shocking works nonchalantly throws jokes and humorous pun-filled titles. Through such approach, Tallur’s works uproot the Western-created notion of Orientalism, and suggest humor and futility in how the reshuffling of world power due to globalism has permeated into our everyday life.

In particular, this exhibition traces the artist’s observations on the global expansion of financial panic that started in the U.S. in 2008. Having witnessed something like neoliberalism, which at once seemed to be invincible, instantly dissolve into thin air, Tallur draws an analogy between such abnormal phenomenon to a neurosis called Chromatophobia, which defines abnormal level of fear towards money. People with such illness believe that money is the root of all evil, and fear money beyond the normal level of anxiety. Analyzing the cause of such condition, the artist explains that the state of turbulence is a result of the transformation from the longing for momentum to lust for speed. This exhibition is a type of subscription for such a condition.