Dr Sukant Khurana focusses on social issues through art, says Vaibhav Ratra
Many artists do layers. But Dr Sukant Khurana highlights each with a fake smile or an emoticon, recalling emotional journeys of long-time friends and an autobiographical part of his life. He then wipes them off and overlays them with his altered state of mind.
A renowned scientist, artist, writer and entrepreneur, Dr Sukant was born in New Delhi and has spent most of his professional career in the United States. His science focusses on ameliorating human suffering and coming up with innovative data science solutions, while his art focusses on exploring the human condition. He has worked to encourage education, sustainable development, healthcare issues and women empowerment.
Through his art works, on display at Café de Art, Connaught Place, he wants to tell the world “with destruction comes creation, with chaos comes order and in the end everything gradually adds up positively.”
“The exhibition captures a part of my life and my approach towards the art. It covers my sense of ‘creative destruction’, where I paint a layer on canvas and then throw it to the elements. Then I attack it with a knife, occasionally even shooting it with a gun and painting it over. I paint a layer in a destructive creation and then wash it immediately, mimicking a process of washing away life’s hurt immediately,” said the artist.
Sukant’s journey started because of his unwillingness to conform to any particular technique or established theme. “I think my parents’ encouragement helped me in every phase of my life and my passion for art made me overcome all the hardships in my life. In the early years, I was most influenced by the work of Ai Weiwei and Banksy because of their ability to explore social issues through art. So my art focusses on exploring the human condition. In 2013, I worked on a solo commission for Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. And there has been no looking back after that. I think whatever people have seen is just the beginning and soon I am going to exhibit my most radical experiments in art. I hope that I can continue to bring my art to India as I did for international venues,” he explained.
All the works being exhibited are evocatively powerful with highlights of their own. While some are technically unique, there are others that catch one’s eye because of the strength of the lines, colour schemes, aesthetic beauty and textures, each layer contributing gradually to the final layer.
The paintings offer a very wide range of viewership by offering different forms. Each work caters to a different topic with nothing binding them together but only the idea of a pictorial representation of creation from destruction. Sukant explained, “If you were to look for a single thread of topic that would bind these paintings, you wouldn’t find it and that is the abstract beauty behind it. There are works where one layer of art hides several layers of art behind, a metaphor for how each day’s effort does not add up to the next at times, all the way to art where each layer is washed immediately after painting, where all layers contribute to the final work that emerges, a testament to slow and tough progress.”
About future plans and collaboration artist mentioned, “I am looking forward to exhibit my art on women’s mistreatment in segments of society. Through my art, I want to raise awareness about mental health and artificial intelligence.”
He has a very particular advice for budding artists: “Be true and honest to yourself and your art and it goes without saying that your destiny is always in your hands. Unfortunately, in India too many youngsters are busy copying masters instead of evolving their own style.”