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A woman’s quest for the roots

‘101 Eyes’: Oil on canvas by Sajitha G. on display at Travancore Art Gallery in New Delhi.

Tracing two decades of works by the illustrious artist from Kerala, Sajitha G., is an ongoing exhibition of paintings, sculptures and works on charcoal at Travancore Art Gallery on Kasturba Gandhi Marg in the Capital.

Inaugurated by Union Culture and Tourism Minister Ambika Soni on Wednesday, the retrospective -- aptly titled “Stree (Tracing 20 years)” -- is open to the public up to July 16.

Curated by auction analyst-cum-art critic Uma Nair who incidentally also coined the title for the weeklong show, the exhibition explores the travails of a female artist after she experiences the world as a woman with all its disillusions.

The artistic phases are clearly divided into charcoals, poems of love series, sculptures and her final archetypes which she began in India and reached heights in Paris. Of particular significance is a turmeric installation of a triangle which is a metaphor for Sajitha’s search for her roots.

Each style varies from one medium to another in age, trajectory of artistic career and style of works. However, there is a common visual language in all works.

Sajitha’s pieces of art are usually autobiographical. Stating that her earlier works were related to herself, her family and the environment in which she lived in, Sajitha says: “Later on the tone of my works changed because I started looking at the concerns of a woman and when that happened my outlook and composition changed. In my early works I used colours of the forest but in the past few years I started looking at the paradoxes of being a woman.”

Sajitha’s works run along a narrative unfolding through shifting perspectives of each character’s stream of consciousness. “When I begin painting, I always have a particular theme in mind but as it progresses I realise that what opens up is a search for finding my roots, asking questions about my existence. I believe that when the dialogue between a work of art and the artist is deep-rooted, the presence of the artist in that work is ever present.”

One of the most acclaimed Indian female writers, Kamala Das points out that Sajitha does not celebrate the fact of her existence, she does not offer any solutions nor does she pass on any messages. “She knows how different today’s world is from yesterday’s. Sajitha’s art is strong meat, it cannot be ignored.”

Madhur Tankha

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