14th Feb when everyone is busy with their personnel lives.. there are few who have been romancing with what is closest to their hearts. The fragmented few, who are just different layers within ourselves exhibited their line of work at The Indian Habitat Center. We had the famous Five Post Independence to change the face of Indian art(MF Hussain, Suza etc). Here we have the three trio: Bhanu, Aakshat and Veerat. Each Individuals work is on a different axis in a 3D world. But somewhere they all merge at different levels. The artists express the layers of complexity that a human mind faces in dealing with themselves, the world and their dreams and ideas.
Aakshat who after completing his engineering , left for a different path to reconnect with himself. His answers searched Art as a medium in his self journey. There are friends and fellows who encourage and direct him to refine his art modeling techniques. But aakshat's soul lies in exploring the basic human form "Our Soul". His expression is engraved in the union of colors. each color stands alone , but spreads across to bring harmony to thought and mind. His canvases play with separation and togetherness of same thoughts expressed through twin canvases in his line of work in Fragmented few. Van Gogh expressed action through his strokes. Aakshat expresses the fluidity of the soul through his strokes which have varied translucency. He has a a deep understanding of the aura that surrounds each individual. he expresses them with one color on each canvas, yet gets them together to demonstrate the different moods that make them one with the soul. His paintings are the reflections that go in our subconscious mind once we have passed away from any encountered experience. They express "We still exist in form by shaping your mind and actions". They are not the after affects of a hangover where we loose our voice. But that shape the state of our mind. You would say i'd rather have a tequila shot or bhang on a holi day. His works are these stream of thoughts and beings that we experience everyday.
Veerat's work are vital to a child's play. what would be an art class in school for a child, if he/she was asked to make the world around him/her. Veerat's work refuses to travel in the existing city scape where he physically belongs. He treads on the path where he sits and dreams with his imagination. His world explores What the world would be if the creation of God and the subordinate Human mind were in unison. The Swiss knife is his human mind that is a tool ready to be used in any situation. He coins it as the Oracle, who knows all. Veerat initiated his journey with a diploma at Maya academy after his schooling. He gave away the digital medium to explore the traditional mediums. Where we explore our capabilities in our daily lives, Veerat gives it to us. Instead of coloring our hair violet he makes them alive with tentacles. He sees further into the future where we disbelief that it may exist. Under the branching tree of possibilities and probabilities he takes human form to an evolution where ocean creatures, humans and machinery converge to evolve in a form more suited to an environment which can surface 1000 years from now. And if such a painting is discovered , they might presume that Human beings did exist in this form too , or were aware that human beings would evolve to such a state. These are just based on If. An if condition that can change the complete landscape of the way we perceive our surroundings.
Bhanu has been the toughest to understand. But with his little help I have been able to see the third side of the coin. The lack of understanding is what his images say aloud. We are all encased in a capsule. We layer and abstract ourselves with our appearances. We refuse to see around us . We are fragmented in various ways. we are fragmented as individuals, as a society. We are fragmented by the underlying thumb that drives us daily. We are different in ways which we camouflage unknowingly to be a part of this society. Bhanu unveils us from these hidings. He dares us to see ourselves as we are. His paintings can be interpreted on different levels. At one level we see how we have grownup in physique but not in our minds. The doll baby faces are representative of the state of being of human minds that we present to display an exterior face of innocence. Pink a colour which all girls associate with rosy cheeks and pretty dresses, Bhanu expresses it to be the colour of flesh as well. Which if exposed we screech , but thats what lies beneath our skin. There is a certain tension in his paintings which are trying to come in harmony with the inner and outer spaces. The exteriors of the canvases are the submissive human mind that gives in to what is expected from an individual, the inner conflict lives within to express and grow out in the canvases. Each painting is like a plant encased in a box which is devoid of light and is unable to grow due to the limitations that surround him/her in the form of societal pressures, a body of conduct etc. A bat expresses itself as a bat. A hyena parts away your meal. in the end they are all part of this life-cycle. Acceptance of these unwanted creatures is what will bring everyone in unison and harmony. Discarding them away would just break the life-cycle on which we all exist. Bhanu wants us to accept them. He wants us to share our space. In jack Johnson's song he sings " Where did the good people go?".
In totality this exhibition fulfilled the promise of experiencing ourselves of who we are.
Urvashi Yadav
An Inclined person to Forms of Expression.
1 comment:
Thanks for such a long thoughtful critique of our works Urvashi, please do forgive me for not posting my views here, even though I did mention my feelings in person.
As I mentioned earlier, it seems that maybe through your talks with me and Veraat you have got to know certain depths of our works. I say this because I constantly see our works being misinterpreted as something thats just horror art, sinister escapist visions of a juvenile mind.
I know its hard to believe that the art might not, firstly, be a mirror/reflection of the artist, but just an expression, I do believe whatever one does reflect their beings.
But I think where a lot of people get it wrong , is that when judging an artwork or something thats perceptible in just a view, they take the the surface of the work as the whole work, the surface is just the crest of it.
And knowing the undercurrents is hard at times, since it takes time to see what is going on.
I first of all see this as a compliment, since you gave our works that much time, so you could go beyond the surface.
But what makes me happier is what you brought back after you looked at our works.
I haven't mentioned anything about aakshat. Frankly, because even though the critique/analysis of his work was superlative in many senses,it would easily suffice to satisfy a viewer about the artists work and intentions. But what intrigued and perplexed me was the lack of personal talk/connection to the artist that was obviously there in the other two artists mentioned.
But then I am glad you got your feelings out in such a way. I wouldnt think of a better state by a critique for our works, sad that this got finished after the start of our exhibition.
I hope you also write more like this, and about other things as well, especially some music. Come on, girl you a music lova!!!
Again, Thanks for the words, means a lot you took your time to write this thing down.
Much love,
Bhanu
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