First outbursts of expressions are almost always drawn from experience and Palashpriya Ghosh’s first exhibition “Aagomon” is no exception. In a series of paintings in both acrylic and ink, Palashpriya expresses the undercurrents of her student life on canvas.
She paints nature, still life, figures, abstract motifs or a combination of all these different elements.
Her backgrounds are usually dark (metaphorically and literally) with sharp, bright tendrils and lines of colours seemingly fighting their way through the dark depths. These lines intersect at curves and angles to create images . These images are sometimes of doorways, windows, paths or forests. While at other times they form motifs against which her figures, always women, fight to escape from.
“My works are an expression of all the struggles I have faced and fought against to come to this position,” says Palashpriya. “For instance, in one of my works titled ‘Princess’, I have painted birds without wings, to indicate the lack of freedom. Similarly in another work titled ‘Fossils’, the woman who is formed out of the stones and trees is trying to break out of her structure, but she cannot move.”
This is obvious even in works such as ‘Subornolata’ in which a woman is shown as part of a tree trunk, where the trunk itself is the woman. It is as though the woman is seeking to escape from her binding form. The theme continues in her pen and ink works where the prominent motifs are leaves, prison bars, tendrils and a hand. The leaves are always behind the bars and the hand is held back by the tendrils.
In many of her paintings, Palashpriya works with lines, rather, strokes, quite consciously to create a graphic image that reflects her background in graphic art from the Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath.
Her works also sometimes have traces of cubism, as she acknowledges in her introduction, in their breaking-down of an image into various objects or motifs and conscious re-assembling to create layers of depth and meaning.
“Aagomon” will be on view at the Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath, Kumara Krupa Road, until November 23. Call 09819002644.
