“A single butterfly tells you everything you need to know about life,” says Sakshi Makhija earnestly. “You become like a child when you see a butterfly.” I'm not entirely sure what she means. “Well, you see, I started noticing butterflies because of my son, who's just one-and-a-half years old,” Sakshi explains.
Childlike simplicity
“He's seeing the world for the first time, and the butterfly is this motif that is so ubiquitous in children's literature — you often see a butterfly dotting the fronds of a page or even being the subject of a children's story. I noticed how my son responded to these butterflies, both live and as depicted on pages, and it made me observe them as well. They have a childlike simplicity — they can give pleasure and joy by just existing. They flit by our complicated lives with seeming simplicity, reminding us of life's magnificence… they're like the special, happy moments of life, which insist on bidding adieu before we would like them to.”
Incidentally, you're not going to see butterflies when you enter the gallery. At least, not butterflies in the conventional sense. You'll see coloured abstracts, largely characterised by vertical brush movements. No discernible butterflies. But the canvas shows two perspectives simultaneously. Each could be a magnified view honing in on a tiny plot of wing — the vertical stripes delineating the tiny fibrous lines and grooves — but step back a little and the hasty strokes and slashes also represent the constant movement of this tiny winged creature. “Butterflies are hardly ever stationary,” says Sakshi. “You can't keep the eye still when you're trying to look at one — they're in a constant state of movement, always flitting, barely pausing.”
Sakshi's work, like her capricious butterflies, is spontaneous. “I don't have a plan of what I'm going to paint before I sit down,” she says. “This is an entirely new medium and style for me.” Her canvases are colourful, but also chaotic; they capture a delicacy of the detail of a wing as well as the flux of constant movement, mapping the trajectory as well as design of this fluttering, flying creature.
(“Chasing Butterflies” is on till April 21 at Vinnyasa Premier Art Galery)
