In his note on SSVAD, acclaimed artist Jogen Chowdhury writes, ‘One of the major ideas behind the formation of Santiniketan Society of Visual Art and Design (SSVAD) was to build a meaningful space for creation, without the boundaries of an institution — and to provide a breathing space for free thoughts and experimentations’. The ongoing exhibition at Kalakriti presented by members of SSVAD is a nod to this ideology.
The exhibition showcases paintings, sculptures and installations by 21 artists, most of them teachers of art and artists, using materials as diverse as tracing paper, terracotta or a tapestry to explore varied themes in their expressions.
Terracotta field
Anupam Chowdhury’s work is a mini field, with the saplings represented by tiny terracotta sculptures with barely a pair of leaves. Through his untitled terracotta and wood work he brings together two things he cherishes in Santiniketan — its unique terracotta and abundance of greenery.
A tapestry becomes the canvas for Banatanwi Dasmahapatra, an associate professor at Santiniketan who’s also pursuing her Ph.D at Centre for Exact Humanities, IIIT-Hyderabad. Titled ‘Bright Isolation’, the tapestry’s bright white border conceals within it shades of blue, grey and intermittent darkness. The artist emphasises that she’s privy to silence and it is audible to her even within its vacuity. The tapestry and its layers of light and shadow is also her quest for hope within the darkness of silence.
Dilip Mitra paints natural still life with a three-dimensional quality. An assortment of bricks/boxes/books juxtaposed with a glass vase with flowers talk about the passage of time.
Words are everything
‘Adorned with words’ is an arresting work on gender issues by Mahjabin Imam Majumdar. An artist who questions staid views and looks for an invigorating debate on pre-defined notions of gender, she presents a feminine form adorned in a beauty pageant sort of fashion, with a robe filled with words — bricks of gold and silver, pebbles of pearl, soil of saffron, and mortar of fragrant musk. As though to complement the unconventional take on gender, there’s a bronze sculpture of a female form sporting a punk by Tejandra Baoni.
The subject of the sculptures in this exhibition range from everyday kitchen utensils to lifestyle vignettes from the past. Pankaj Panway depicts the days of hamara Bajaj where the scooter was the symbol of middle class of the 80s.
Moving away from a predictable representation of human interest themes through portraiture of people from different working sections, Prasanta Sahu paints a maze of electric wires near a transformer grid. All we see on the foreground is a hand, presumably of the electrician who is the artist’s case study. The painting celebrates unknown warriors who keep a metropolis running.
Urban spaces
It’s tough to argue if Prasun Kanti Bhattacharya’s work is solely abstract or figurative. He transcends these borders in his rhythmic placement of squares. Colour, forms and shape are the principal elements in his paintings through which he depicts issues in and around Santiniketan.
Elsewhere, Rishi Barua’s painting ‘Urban Façade’ is a matrix of black, yellow and white, giving room for hope, dream, reality and struggle emerging from the abyss of urban settlements.
The exhibition showcases several other compelling works. A tranquil representation of the cosmos by Janak Jhankar Narzary is contrasted by Sheema Barua’s fiery, dark ‘Shades of Woman’, a group of six red and black paintings that portray a woman’s multiple identities and the interplay of emotions.
The group show by SSVAD is on view at Kalakriti art gallery, Banjara Hills, till February 18.
