Artists describe social change and growing aggression among people in their works. Darpan Mago reports
Meghna Agarwal has painted a chimpanzee and a dripping medicine bottle on a semi-realistic background. The painting is confusing yet intriguing. One look at the work makes you want to know more. A gamut of subjects pass through one’s mind and it isn’t easy to grasp the true essence of it. As far as human health is concerned, there are some illnesses where bearing the taste of medicines is more afflicting than the disease itself. The condition of a diseased man is like speechless animal. As the syrup from the amber coloured bottle drops, the chimpanzee’s face turns unhappy. On the surface level this painting isn’t speaking much but the artist attempts to draw a very unique and inarticulate human emotion. There are times when medicines are feeding the insecurity than making any difference to the already deteriorating health of a patient.
“My grandfather was suffering from rare health problems, ones that even the doctors weren’t able to treat efficiently. The man was always surrounded by medicines and injections. The more his condition deteriorated the greater dislike he developed for the pills. When a man is already in pain, going through another round of non-functioning pills only makes him sad. The man knew that he wasn’t getting any better and that precisely is the human condition. Sometimes we are suffering yet we aren’t able to do anything about it. My heart couldn’t bear when he used to urge us to not feed him those medicines,” explains, Meghna Agarwal, the creator of this work.
Nearly 50 artists from around the country will display their works at an exhibition titled Panorama-3 at India Habitat Center, starting from July 5.
Priyanka Banerjee, the curator of this exhibition, says, “I don’t believe in working on a theme for my exhibitions. Telling the artists to follow a theme is like instructing them on what to draw. Artists should be free to explore subjects of their choice. Good work only comes when the artist has been given enough independence. The efforts of emerging artists have been recognised and we’ve given a platform to them to showcase their creativity.”
Most artists present children in a cliched way but Manav Banerjee’s paintings portray an entirely different picture. The leaves are black, the roots of trees are fiercely pointed and there is something strange going on in the eyes of children which he has drawn. Scaring away the lively spirit out of a child, this painting has something deeply embedded and not easily understood. Banerjee passed away two years back and the meaning of his works now remains a mystery.
Priyanka says, “If I tell you something, it’ll be my own perception of the work. I took the work after his death. Manav is no more and he was probably the only one who could have broken this strange riddle around his masterpieces. Even I don’t have a complete idea of what he has tried to hint. There is something that you constantly struggle to understand but keep failing. Perhaps, this element makes the painting worth pondering.”
The children seem to be in conversation with someone in front of the painting. They are drawn with ruthless facial expressions, as if they are not at all concerned about the person with whom they are conversing.
The exhibition hasn’t kept itself restricted to only professional artists but many with diverse careers are also part of this show. Amit Kumar is a software engineer working in Noida and has drawn the face of a tiger using pen, ink and brush strokes on a 24 X 16 inches sheet. Using three colour combinations of black, blue and red, the tiger has furious yet patient expressions. “I wanted to express human aggression and how this aggression is one of the reasons that most things are going wrong in this world. Humans are very capable beings and have an ability to bring a big change. The blue colour is symbolic of the power inside and the red colour outside marks the spread of aggression, which also conveys the beginning of a change. We all face many challenging situations daily but rather than fretting to kill the negativity, one must develop and increase the positive power, this will automatically counter the counterproductive,” says Amit.
Artists like Mridul Chakraborty, Uma Bardhan, Kashi Nath Bose, Ganesh Panda and Hamlet Shougrakpam are also participating.