Multi-disciplinary artist ANU MAlHOTRA talks about revealing the infinite possibilities of life through art. By Team Viva
As a filmmaker, the world, for me, is a kaleidoscope – a treasure-house of images tumbling into each other, colours spilling, merging, fading, gushing into infinite forms, revealing the infinite possibilities of life. Art for me is not a pursuit but a life-practice. In reveries, I dream about images from my travels – the stunning vistas of the ladakh, the impossible azure blues of its skies and lakes, the peculiar purple-mauve of its mountains; the amazing colors of Rajasthan; the jewelled undersea life in lakshadweep and Andamans. Somehow, somewhere, these visual images and colours called for an alternate expression,” shares Anu Malhotra who began painting 15 years ago in her spare time.
Malhotra is not guided by any strict rules while painting, one abiding technique is the way she allows colours to fall on the canvas. “I pour paint on the empty surface and what emerges is a spontaneous, albeit layered, composition. I tilt the canvas to construct that composition, yet the angle, or pattern, of these tilts cannot be predicted, or replicated. My impetus is invariably instinctive, yet there is an underlying balance and skill that I rely on while the colours flow into each other to form patterns and shapes.” However, she restricts herself from using brushes or knives whilst painting, although she sometimes use her bare hands.
She draws her inspiration from the vibrant colors of India — the fluorescent Odhnis of desert belles; the vibrant hues of village homes in Goa, multicolored tribal jewelry, arrays of vivid bangles, Indian saris n textiles, et. al.
However, art for Malhotra is not a pursuit but a life-practice. “Painting, for me, is not a conscious, deliberate act. Mostly, I work during inspired moments and see myself as a co-creator, where the spirit of a moment and the colours together comprise a creative production.”
She relies primarily on her intuitive creative instincts, never following the well-trodden path, always drawn to the unconventional, the unexplored, and the yet-to be-revealed. “As a filmmaker, I am grounded enough in the concrete, the real and the collaborative processes of working. But art has forever been my hidden, uniquely private concern. When painting, I allow the blending of the metaphoric and the concrete, the symbolic and the real, the personal with the cosmic. Most of my work comes close to the abstract and follows the pattern of dreams and energy that flows and pushes – against boundaries, against limits.”
She is often surprised by her own creations, “as if the work had been wrenched out of me, a flow of imagination demanding expression through my hands. That is why I am unable to replicate my own work. Each work is unique, its own channel and its own master. Those who have seen my work often discover shapes and forms that arise out of their own impression of the work. The same work can evoke different projections that express the viewer’s own understanding and desires: they see rivers and volcanoes, mountains and tree spirits, fire and avalanches, tigers and sea-horses, angels and seraphs, sunsets and twilight.”