Features: Magazine | Literary Review | Life | Metro Plus | Open Page | Education Plus | Book Review | Business | SciTech | Friday Review | Young World | Property Plus | Quest | Folio |

Contemplative canvas

Bibekananda Santra tries to link the traditional with the modern

TRADITION INSPIRED A work by Bibekananda Santra

Artworld is showcasing the works of Bibekananda Santra, a Bengal born artist, who is settled in Pondicherry. Trained as a sculptor at Kala Bhavan, Shantiniketan, he has crossed varied thresholds of this artistic medium to explore his personal philosophy of being one with the self and to emit an aura of meditative serenity

His works are manifestly tradition inspired. By engaging with the concept of conflict, Bibek approaches his canvas armed with a visual language to foreground `the self' and to transcend into a realm of contemplative silence. His artistic vocabulary deploys the iconic form of the meditative Buddha and female imagery. It is Bibek's strong convictions that Nature is the nurturing element and the metaphor to convey this is the woman in the role of a mother or going beyond into the sacred dominion, the iconic figure of Durga or Saraswati. With this as his premise, it is easy to see how he has made his artistic statements interesting through the use of wooden window and door frames sourced from junk/antique shops, literally the detritus of society translated into works of art. He refers to this as "Old Wood" series, craftily transformed through application of mirrors, paint strokes and other mass consumed material to evoke a strong sense of drama and poetry. These so called jharokhas or ornamental wooden frames carry painted faces such as that of a woman, a couple in close proximity, or the goddess Durga or the Buddha.

According to Bibek, "I use natural colours and medium. It lends a natural touch to old wood, handloom, hand made paper and different contemporary mediums. I am searching for myself through my work."

If his imagery is powerful, then the sense of composition in his painted canvases conveys this too. He skilfully manipulates the large empty spaces that convert into positive dynamic elements with emphasis placed either within the central vertical or horizontal band, which becomes the vehicle of his ideas in which vignettes of elements tell their own story. The surrounding space carries the visual key to understanding the rest of the work. This metaphoric hide and seek marks his works as truly original and creative. The potency conveyed in his works is the result of experiments that Bibek has been intensely involved in from his student days. Through his creative pursuits, Bibek is searching for peace, love and truth. His work stems from a deep desire within his heart to make a link between the modern and the traditional. And this sensibility of the young artist marks a trajectory in which the role of tradition is privileged and continues to be interrogated to make his works authentically Indian in the present milieu of glocalisation. The exhibition is on till September 14.

ASHRAFI BHAGAT

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail