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AMIDST NATURE One of the works on display

The exhibition titled “8 Wonders of Pondicherry” is represented by artists, Akmal Husain, Bibekananda Santra, Dilip Kumar Patel, Hufreesh Dumasia, Kirti Chandak, Vishwajyoti Mohrhoff and ceramists Ange Peter and Kratu.

What is interesting about the show is its diversity in form, technique, medium and expression. The different textures of creativity emerge through the artists’ varied cultural backgrounds and sources of inspiration. The visual language is as varied as the artists represented; the gamut going from realistic, expressionistic, abstract, naturalistic to figurative. A commonality of thread providing connectivity to all their works is nature and the imminent representation of the human forms.

The works that attract are those of Ange whose aesthetically functional ceramic works in unusual and distinctive colours, forms and decoration allow her to mark a posture of difference. She learnt the Old English slipware technique lost during industrialisation from a Japanese master. Kratu is a ceramic sculptor born in Italy but living in Pondicherry since 1968. He indulges in forms that though appearing fragmentary underpin the thematic content of his works. His faces have a raw and spontaneous quality, bearing a striking resemblance to archetypal Indian art forms, yet modern and contemporary. His stonewear works make an appeal through their earthy colours.

Akmal Husain and Dilip Patel share a commonality of approach. Akmal’s works are rooted in nature – pristine and fresh while Patel zooms in on the details of flowers or a lotus pond in full bloom. Both these artists exhibit a naive and a fresh vision that is articulated with spirited verve and vitality. Kirti’s autobiographical works are an intense expression of her attraction and response to the sea. The latter as an enigma and a metaphor of sexual energy have been interestingly deployed to indirectly gesture towards a spiritual journey and her visual language aptly complements this restlessness through swirling and vigorously rendered swirls of water as well as the contemplative blues or the invigorating oranges.

Vishwajyoti a self-taught artist mediates through the divine metaphor of Krishna’s flute and the game that he played with this musical instrument with the gopis. Embedded within her works are also the games played out in life by individuals as the painting of chess players display, which has as its background the environmental ruin brought upon by the insensitive games that human beings indulge with nature.

Bibekananda Santra, was trained as a sculptor at Kala Bhavan, Shantiniketan. His works are manifestly tradition inspired. By engaging with the concept of duality a ubiquity in Indian philosophy consisting of purusha and prakriti, Bibek is gesturing towards creation and procreation, as his visual language manifestly declare. His works articulate this philosophy by juxtapositioning the man and woman whose bodies are overrun by the motif of fish, a symbol of regeneration as well as sexual energy. His colours further reinforce this with vivid blood reds; and when in union by contemplative pastoral greens. It is Bibek’s strong convictions that nature is the nurturing element and the metaphor to convey is the woman in the role of a mother.

The only abstractionist in the group, Hufreesh Dumasia’s works are refreshing and the web of pattern she weaves on the surface of her canvas with skeins of paint is like a spirited poem. The spirit here reflects her optimism towards life and in her method of creation there is undeniably an urge to lay bare her innermost feelings that truly borders on the spiritual. Her canvases sing of joys of her experiences and they invite the viewer to share in her happy and ecstatic moments.

The exhibition with its diversity is a visual treat. It is on at Artworld until March 5.

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