[Fibre glass rescension of Ram Kinkar Baij's Yaksha and Yakshi, with cash and barbed wire ornaments, and a printed vinyl screen]
2 Sculptures in Fibre Glass with sand finish, 5ft. 4in X 2.5 ft and 5ft, 2in X 2.5 ft, Suspended Printed Vinyl Screen - 11 feet X 7 feet.

The Reserve Army is Raqs' tribute to the perspicacity of the modernist Indian sculptor Ram Kinkar Baij and to the Reserve Bank of India's commission to Baij to adorn its portal with a Yaksha and a Yakshi in the first decade after the formation of the Indian Republic. In Indic mythology, Yakshas habitually pose difficult questions to unsuspecting wayfarers in order to protect hidden treasure. By sculpting a pair of monumental guardians on two stone pedestals, a Yaksha and a Yakshi, as gatekeepers of the Indian Republic's wealth, Baij has left us with two question marks frozen in stone. How is Money to be guarded? - And – To what purpose?

Today, the guardians and gatekeepers have multiplied. Yaksha clones are on the march. But their asking of questions has been muted in this euphoria. With The Reserve Army , Raqs downsizes the Yaksha and Yakshi to human scale, taking them off their pedestals, substituting stone for fibre glass and sand, and setting them free to work the world wearing bandoliers of currency and belts of barbed wire.

First shown at:
The Santhal Family , Muhka Museum, Antwerp, February 2008