Raqib Shaw’s “Paradise Lost” | Artwork Spotlight

To have this painting at the Art Institute, isn’t it any painter’s dream? Hello, my name is Raqib Shaw, and I’m standing in front of my painting, “Paradise Lost.” I’m a painter, and I live and work in England. This is a hundred-foot painting that spans perhaps half a lifetime. It started second year of my bachelor’s degree.

It doesn't only reference Milton’s epic work, but it also, I think, rings true to absolutely each one of us in our day and age. Now these are all painted enamel. And, the composition is drawn upon the surface, and then the outlines are stained glass liquid.

Each and every single line acts as a dam, in which paints are poured and manipulated with a porcupine quill. It's very much like a cinematic canvas that spans not only decades of life but decades of artistic practice as well. Of course it is a metaphoric story of my life, but it’s also the story of all our lives— That part we all are either damaged by that part we all are either damaged by or we try to sort of sweep under the carpet.

It’s about all the traumas that make us. Now this is a metaphor for the mountains and the wilderness. And, of course, these are all sort of the animals that one imagines as a child, only to also realize that these are fairly reflective of the human society as well.

It’s almost the mechanical, merciless fashion with which human beings have very little regard for the lives of their own kind. This is when I go to art college, and this is my formal introduction to the so-called art world. You can see that there is this incredible palace.

This is the entrance that is flanked by the two shisa dogs. That is the lizardy kind of a character, and if you look at him, he’s sort of greeting you in. He’s a siren that sort of lures you in.

It is certainly a kingdom of great pomp and great show, but at the same time, there is something incredibly uncanny and extremely dark and depraved. This was a time when I really got to know the workings of the art world. And I realized that it was, behind the facade, quite a scary business.

This section of the painting was almost a prediction of what was to follow. Let’s not forget, this was painted about 16 or 17 years ago. I so hope that people who come to see it, they'll take the time to look.

Something that people don't necessarily talk about is the activity of looking. How that is truly dying in our day and age. The activity of looking can be not only well informed, pleasurable, but it can also be something that leads each one of us to our deeper self.

I think that that's what art is supposed to do. I think that that's what art is supposed to do. It is supposed to help you find your own paradise.