Artist Jiban Biswas paints cows as individuals surrounded in a world of magical realism, mysticism and mythology, says Uma Nair
In the everyday vocabulary, artist Jiban Biswas looks at cows as individuals. From turban clad to bell necklaces, Biswas’ cows are surrounded by a host of scenarios where they are festooned, horned and have gorgeous expressions. His works are characteristically rubbery and colourful. The cows are silhouetted as stark white, shiny-nosed spirits, which make them dynamic. It’s rare that a small suite of works looks so transformative. Each work is an emblem of elegance that dwells on the reality of lived life.
With an almost satirical simplicity, Biswas conjures a window into another world, revealing a realm of imagination, mythic tales of the Puranas, mysticism and the magical realism of observation. His cows are individuals who appear in sustained animation eternally placed in the current life space. Here, the motif of the single or multiple virtuoso cows suggests both politics and presence of the essence of conversations that both contradict and coalesce.
Biwas’ handling of composition suggests a dynamism that seems paradoxical yet serene. His paintings create a stark reality where gods, men and beasts live in perennial peace around each other.
Shades and shadows
“The mud colours I use are changing its shade and getting transformed to shadows — of sorrow or maybe, illusion. But my intention is showing strong impressions. These are my people, my village, my childhood,” shared he.
“I’m also pointing at the politics of life. The river and its values, for common man, seems to be misinterpreted for the cost of ‘development’, which has become a daily term used for comfort. When I create something, I’m full of confusion and asking questions with my characters,” he added.
Whether single subjects or many of his larger paintings — they all have a common screen-saver charm. It’s clear, at first glance, that they are created according to a limited number of elements arranged according to a limited set of rules on his space. So you might suppose that it’s the cows which are actually a picture of human beings as potent atoms in a sea of forces within and beyond their control. Even their most passionate demonstrations are as formulaic as the history. You might even consider the buoyant breath and the philosophical perspective, the placement of number of heads of cows as an evidence of how easy it is to fool the eye. But I think they’re evidence that even the simplest of subjects, if you analyse their presence the right way, can make magic.
Cosmopolitan consumer
Biswas said, “The cosmopolitan grind of daily life offers a consumer many things. Each person has their place and role and sometimes, I think people are magicians sometimes playing to an audience and sometimes just subjects of fear.”
Biswas’ each frame is built on a distinctively accurate approach to the geometry of reality. He settles into a seemingly conservative cohesion of brightly-coloured cows that sometimes seem strange, sometimes sarcastic and the other times, credulously real and ironically novel.
“I have used the animal as an icon,” said Biswas. “I try to interpret the representation of instinct, individual dilemmas, and the complexities of psychological journeys that affect us in our day-to-day struggles. There is the stage of the powerful and the powerless. At times, one person gets it all and sometimes, even the whole crowd is jostling for space.”
Memory and experience
Arranging both space and subject matter into densely-layered images, Biswas is informed by a certain collective ethic aesthetic. Memory and experience become allies that build the analogue. He presents some reflections — much of what we think we know is far removed from reality like a distortion or an illusion.