FEATURE
Melancholy of a Political Land: Sarika Mehta
Ahmedabad based artist, Sarika Mehta’s works have the sheen
of poetical melancholy that drenches the onlooker with a sense of longing for the
lost. JohnyML features the artist for the Art Daily
(Sarika Mehta)
Sarika Mehta stands amidst a grey pool of concentrated
silence. Her works exude silence like a thick serum oozing from hurt memories.
The melancholy however, is not hurtful; it doesn’t distract the viewer, instead
it draws him into them. My first response is to have a quick look and
proceed. But I stay back amidst these paintings. Sometimes you feel so
overwhelmed by a work of art but such feelings are rare these days. Sarika’s
works touch you deep inside and you oscillate between the familiar and unfamiliar
feelings. Is the melancholy so enchanting and are the sap like greys so
serene? Sarika’s enigmatic countenance does not provide you with any answers.
In her age she need not be that melancholic and make it so infectious. But
sheer happiness of life could make one aware of its extreme opposites. Her
world view is darkened by pain but I would say it is slowed by poetry.
(Untitled Oil on canvas by Sarika Mehta)
Born in Ahmedabad, Sarika Mehta got her first degree in fine
arts from the CN College, Ahmedabad. She worked at the Kanoria Studios in the
same city for a while and obtained a post graduate degree in Print Making from
the fine arts faculty, M.S.University, Baroda. Training in graphics polished
her lines and experiments in painting made her techniques clear. A harmonious
mingling of lines, colours and space makes her paintings quite enchanting.
Formally speaking they are duo-tonal in nature and maintain a classical
perspective. The vast spaces she opens up in her paintings come from her
familiarity with the terrain in which she lives. She minuses the urban
characteristics from the familiar terrains but interestingly she does not
litter them with the rural imageries either. Sarika, the way a child removes
toys from a basket, throws out the definitive landmarks from the place only to
transform it into a space; a space of vastness.
(Untitled Oil on Canvas by Sarika Mehta)
Consider Sarika’s imageries; they vary from uprooted plants,
floating rocks, spiralling ladders to upturned charpoys. They all exist in a
vast space created out of grey and faint pink tones. Anybody who has travelled
from Ahmedabad to Bhuj or Kutch would realize how the familiarity with that
terrain has helped Sarika to formulate her mental landscapes. The barren
landscapes where Sarika places uprooted plants and dying birds are near
replication of those landscapes. Uprooted plants/trees lying like a fallen
patriarch amidst the ice cubes strewn all over is a strong symbol Sarika uses
in her painting. A closer look reveals that there is a small garland of red
beads lying hidden around a piece of ice. There are ladders that begin at the
ending and end at the beginning.
(Detail of a work by Sarika Mehta)
Sarika gives some autobiographical references to her
imageries while discussing her works; it ranges from her growing up years to
new motherhood. From fertility of imagination to fertility of body the artistic
imagination flutters like a kite. She does not emphasise the word ‘political’
in any of her explanations. But in my view, what makes Sarika’s works intriguing
and interesting is the artist’s skilful and covert way of making a political
statement about her own land and her times. Gujarat is a land of
politico-religious conflicts though these days it is considered to be a model
state of development. Apparently Gujarat gives a happy picture for the moneyed
and the affluent classes. But the reality is that the cosmetic development of
the land is at the cost of average human beings. An autocrat’s political
diktats may sound music to many ears but for the right thinking people, this
music could turn into a military marching tune that walks automatically into
private lives.
(watercolour by Sarika Mehta)
In my view Sarika’s melancholy comes from this deep
understanding of the political reality. She sees everything standing still
around her; there is an uncanny beauty in everything. The stillness and
tranquillity are benumbing and deafening. The beautiful landscape of evenness
changes into a dead and frozen land where life becomes impossible in Sarika’s
works. Amongst the uprooted trees one sees the dead bodies of peace. Uprooting
is a part of development and urbanization, both key agendas of
globalization. But without directly referring to development or urbanization,
Sarika underlines uprooting as an issue. The beads seen around an ice cube is
Sarika’s reminder to those who ululate the achievement of an autocrat. The
ladder that begins and ends at the same point shows the futility of the so
called progress and development.
(Oil on canvas by Sarika Mehta)
I do not know whether Sarika Mehta is going to accept my
interpretation or not. She may like to keep the subtlety of her metaphors as it
is. Shrill interpretations could cause problem to the privacy of the artist.
But I believe someone has to say this if nobody dares to say it. Sarika has
said it through her apparently innocent looking metaphors. But she reiterates
undoubtedly that the decay is on its way through the migration of ants from one
ant hill to another being made under an upturned charpoy which is new and is in
sharp contrast with the termite eaten charpoy lying broken around the ant hill.
Another interesting aspect of Sarika’s practice is her installations. The
growing decay in all aspects of life is emblematized by the artist as growing algae or fungi. She uses painted towels to simulate algae formations
and places them at water pipes, cracks in the walls and air conditioner ducts and
so on. Rolling stones do not gather moss. But we have stopped rolling,
emotionally and intellectually, Sarika Mehta seems to say through her works.
NEWS
Ruins of the Renaissance - a multi-discipline festival
A unique multi-discipline
festival is going to take place at the Innovative Film City, Bangalore from the
25th of May to the 26th of May 2013. The festival titled, ‘Ruins of the
Renaissance’ is a one of its kind festival
with an array of creativity and innovation on display in the form of arts,
science and music. The philosophy of the festival is that everyone is born
creative and the spark is lost over time. The festival aims to rekindle that
fire and bring one back to themselves.
The festival has workshops,
artist galleries, innovation stalls, experiments street performances,
installation art, open work spaces, live art, stage performances, prototypes
and after parties planned. The multi curated festival promises over 150 new
experiences in the world of creative pursuits and innovation.
Tickets are available at the
site.
Sighting Sound: A project display by FICA Club
The Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art (FICA), New
Delhi, presents a project titled, ‘Sighting Sound: A Project Display by FICA
club’. The FICA club is a group of students from the Deepalaya School who along
with the facilitator Sreejata Roy, try to explore non curriculum based topics
using innovative and creative methods. Using sound in every day life as a theme
the young members of the group discus their experiences of sounds and these
ideas are then translated into visual and performative art works.
These visuals and
performative art works will be on display on the 15th of May between 10:30 am
to12:30 pm, in the Deepalaya School Foyer, New Delhi.
The FICA Club was formed
under FICA’s Learning with Art Project
in 2009, with the intent of long term educational module that uses art and
other creative methods to help children explore the world around them.
Sreejata Roy is an M Phil in
new media from Coventry School of Art and Design, UK and has several years of
experience in community related projects, and has been a part of national and
international art residencies and exhibitions.
Embedded Memories -
A four persons show
(Painting by Sujata Achrekar)
Crimson Art Gallery, Bangalore, presents a montage of art
works in a light-hearted vein from the lives of 4 artists, with most of the art
works derived from their individual childhood memories or adolescence.
Resurfacing their memories in the form of art works, from their innocent
subconscious the artists display drawings and paintings.
The show is rightly titled, ‘Embedded Memories’ and
brings forth an array of beauty, innocence, fragments of mundane informations,
the secrets, all this forming a physically manifesting heirloom of memories
which the drawings and paintings convey.
The participating artists are, Sujata Achrekar, Sukanta
Das, Nagesh Goud and Shravan Kumar. The show is on view till the 16th of May
2013.
This
Figured: Murals, Vandalism and Visualities - A show by artists, anthropologists
The imagery of walls shown in this
exhibition are by Gita, Gandhirajan and Roos and have various connections to the world around
them. They explore the iconoclastic occurrences on early murals that has been
traced as depicted by anthropologist and artist Gandhirajan, the new
inspirations that the older murals have triggered portrayed in Gita's paintings
and the elaborate visual street culture in Chennai's urban spaces as shown in
Roos' images.
The show is on view till the 30th of
June 2013 at the Dakshinachitra Art gallery, Chennai
(News Reports by Sushma Sabnis)
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