Ever since Leonardo da Vinci, in the early 1490s, divided his time between demonstrating the harmonious proportions of the human physique in his famous drawing Vitruvian Man and constructing a humanoid robot of his own design, painters and sculptors have broken down the beauty of the body into mechanised components. “The reason I am painting this way,” artist Niku Guleria explained during her latest exhibition “The Struggle Is On” at the Shridharani Art Gallery, “is that I want to navigate into some other world...focusing on the man who is exposed to the vagaries of societal values and advancing technology. Nevertheless he is still struggling to come to terms with all his wear and tear in soul and mind...I am trying to make viewers understand the reality of this wholly mechanized world into my own way.”
Can art be held hostage within the confines of beauty and pleasure? “Surely not, it germinates, grows, proliferates and flows in its own way,” replies Niku. She has continuously used horizontal and vertical lines and her non-conforming colours have given credence to the expression of her rebellious thinking. Every canvas of hers depicts new forms and concepts smeared with intriguing shades, hues and dimension giving them a some new artistic dispensation.
The Jammu-based Niku’s paintings highlight modern man’s identity crisis of how he is is caught in the never-ending struggle with his own creation – the machine. Niku’s oil on canvas creations aptly reflect man’s breakneck race and tussle with time – in the process eroding the old traditions, social values and concepts while at the same learning to live in peace. and giving himself totally to his futuristic dream and aspirations.
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So behold, the advent of highly techno-savvy mechanical being – both in body and in spirit while the struggle is on.