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Imaging desire, myths, liberation, exhilaration and much more... .

Madhur Tankha

THE LANGUAGE OF ART: Rini Dhumal's painting

NEW DELHI: Her art speaks a universal language. It also has a certain degree of permanence that portrays the feel and flow of life with all its coloured nuances and experiences. Now Baroda-based artist Rini Dhumal's recent works are being exhibited at a fortnight-long solo show at Art Alive in Panchsheel Park here.

The pictorial language of her works deals with myths and dreams -- images from the real world as well as the subconscious with symbolic references. The flying females, for instance, are associated with desires, trees and fruits.

In this exhibition there are artistic impressions from her travel to China and so many more from other past journeys. Women make their presence felt as icons regal and alone, embodying a sense of liberation and, at times, exhilaration. Chronologically one could trace these Amazon-Medusa figures to Pagan sources and to our own Indic mythology but they reflect in unison a sisterhood of spirit that comes from the painter's philosophy that kindred souls know no physical belonging. Rini's works show pagan goddesses in yogic postures with emblems of lotus, conch shells and Om motifs in contrast to the mythic forms -- half-women and half beast.

After doing her Masters in painting from M. S. University in Baroda and studying under the guidance of Shankho Chaudhuri, she moved to Santiniketan, followed by Paris, where she met and trained with Krishna Reddy.

Rini found her moorings at last, focusing on printmaking under Reddy's tutelage. In her restless journeys across the globe, Rini has constantly sought to re-affirm and reiterate the thought that the feminine psyche is often a matter of shared sensitivities.

The present collection of paintings pays homage to places and people the artist has encountered, exuberantly and in collaborative mediums that spill over with impressions of diversity, capturing nuances and moods that shift. Apart from the canvas works, Rini has collaborated with carpenters and textile designers imaginatively, creating art on the surfaces of tables, boxes and other furniture.

In the course of her travels she has been acutely alert, meticulous in her methodical gathering of images. As the works suggest, the vignettes are alive and vibrant, pulsating with energy and life. From the pastiche of pictorial jottings emerges a fascinating travelogue that is, in a sense, art in a process of incubation, yet to be completed. The exhibition will continue up to October 20.

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