Detour

Caught between his native forest in Central India, the city of Bhopal, and international museums, Pardhan Gond painter Jangarh Singh Shyam lost himself in the liminal space between worlds. Yet, the legacy of his art lives on. Depicting fearsome deities and the rich flora and fauna of Madhya Pradesh’s forests with striking color and animacy, Jangarh’s work gave birth to a new tradition of Gond visual art practice. Navigating landscapes, memories, and archives, this film traces his journey from India to France to Japan, and takes a detour into the spiritual realm of this artist’s soul—a meeting place of beauty and fear; the mythological and the human.