There are crests and troughs, sometimes turbulent and calm on other occasions, carrying within them a range of emotions and the artist’s perspective on the times we live in. Koeli Mukherjee Ghose’s new works, curiously titled ‘The Dancing Coffee’, more than superfluously engage the viewer on coffee and conversations.
Giving us an insight into how this collection came about, Koeli shares, “Many years ago, I was at a café with my brother in Kolkata. The milk and the decoction were served separately. My brother poured the sugar in the transparent glass as I watched the different layers jump up in an effervescent dance. In these layers of the brew, I saw a glimpse of my own creative enactment.”
That was just the germ of an idea. Three years ago, at a photography and painting workshop by the seaside in Pondicherry, as she watched the sunrise, she was drawn to the realisation that no man-made work of art can match nature. “I felt paintings have to be spectacular to be noticed,” she says. She began working on the series.
The black and white ink on paper works are juxtaposed with bright hues of acrylic on canvas. A few works are seemingly amorphous, allowing you to draw your inference and in some, the wavy patterns assume different forms and shapes. One of the acrylic works has a human eye gazing at turbulent, wavy patterns. The painting was the artist’s reaction to the economic downturn in the recent past. “It was my way of giving an expression to human emotions, without getting weighed down by the situations around us,” sums up Koeli.
What: The Dancing Coffee, an exhibition of paintings
Where: Truffles Café, Jubilee Hills
When: Till August 5
