Review - Tanmoy Samanta's All I have learned and forgotten and more news..

REVIEW

Trajectory of Trash and Transmigration

A quiet world of subdued hues unravels in Tanmoy Samanta's works at Gallery Espace, in the solo, 'All I have learned and forgotten' made from traditional materials dowsed in untraditional thoughts, reviews Nisha Aggarwal

( A chair for nobody)

Two pronged antagonism indicted through the colours and sublunary objects, yet divulging the harmony, balance and symmetry. This is what lies at the surface of Tanmoy Samanta's paintings and 3D-book installations. It effuses into denser world of the artist, as one engages conversing to multiple layers of the works. I devolved into the artist's profound personal world, while visiting his third solo show at Gallery Espace, New Delhi, titled 'All I have learned and forgotten' from December 12, 2013 till January 11, 2014. 

The show engulfs 20 works soldering painting and 3D materials which take the viewer into evocation of time, space, memory and then beyond it. Tanmoy collects junked keys, locks, clocks, old books and maps that no longer keep their functional value. He ambles around flea markets and street shops in lost lang synes searching these 'out of time' objects. Then these objects are transformed into motifs that also appear often in his 2D works/paintings. Old books, glued the pages together, layered with rice paper, carved shapes out of the paper and added other objects to them evince another life they hold within. His recycled book 'shadow palace' shows how a colossal structure can disappear yet stay alive in the latent of one's mind. The protagonist here is a palace, which is symbolic of any building that has/had a denoting effect. It accosts that something dominion can be left behind just as a shadow without a body. 

(A Pair of goldfish)

Tanmoy's fervour of reading travelogues, indulgence with maps, globes, interest of tracing countries and continents exhorts in his work 'Cartographer's Paradox-I and II. He brings in all continents and countries together by rendering the dividing line invisible. Here, he becomes a mapmaker playfully making the 'jumbled up' maps without line and borders, tracing the inspiration from John Lennon's 'Imagine'. One hand, it questions the concept of political boundaries and on the other hand, gives them a new identity similar to his recycled books. He explicates these found materials both as an artifact and a medium. Thus, his artistic process becomes a metamorphosis to these objects giving them a new life, and manifold interpretations. His paintings also delineate the potential of umpteen testimonies. For instance, object like human figures, void like objects, eggs like void, unidentified objects like animals, weight that creates emptiness, and amorphous shapes seize the viewer into a zone of daze, arcanum, fantasy, poetry and philosophy. A sitting green figure holding a 'heavy' vacuum in one hand and a 'line' in other hand says what? A form lodged onto a red seated 'chair of nobody' is who? 'A pair of gold-fish' gives stance of tailor's scissors or tailor’s scissors are kept in an aquarium like bowl? A globe glares like an eclipsed moon or it's a shaky picture of a globe only? In 'at dusk' a bird is perched on a gun or on a branch? Watch dials encased in a 'bee-hive' shape makes 'the time hive', are examples of some 'visually created' questions to embroil the viewers. This 'visual play' becomes the interplay of a simultaneous act of remembering and forgetting, for artist and viewer both. 

( The Padlock)

Images, not of artistic imagination instead gathered from his surroundings create frozen narratives allowing the multiple readings. They are like statements of enlightened philosophers loaded with layers of meaning. Artist's control over line drawing makes him able to navigate images into one another, or transmigration of them. His technique has developed from the traditional Japanese school of painting where linearity is maintained while not losing the corpulence of figures. His training as a painter at Santiniketan is evident in the selection of traditional media like fragile rice paper, gouache, and pigments. It itself traces the history in the works of Abanindranath and Rabindranath Tagore both (artists of Santiniketan tradition). But the choice of traditional mediums has not impounded the relevance of his contemporary images and themes. 

( Shadow Palace)

Tanmoy's works expand into conceptual territory of magical realism, which is because he reads a lot. His parents belonging to the field of literature, exposed him to classics in his childhood itself and he continued reading them. A self-confessed fan of writers like Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Franz Kafka, Tanmoy says that colours in his colour palette stem from his nature. His toned down and muted colours reflect him to be an introvert. He starts out with brighter and darker ones, but consciously mellows them down to subdue the cacophony of hues. Working on more than one canvas together, he creates multiple layers of the colours under the visible ones. He uses colour washes to get the fluidity of water-colours and the opaqueness of other paints. This way, his simple sounding works imbibe the complexity of process, meaning and interpretation. They dilate the level of epochal image-making from ordinary to extra-ordinary, and trace the trajectory of trash and transmigration, of images and objects both. 

NEWS

2D3D - Flavour of the Contemporary

( Work on display)

Gallery-g, Bangalore presents a show titled, ‘2D3D’, a compelling overview of fusion art with paintings and sculptures as part of its 11th anniversary celebrations. This amalgamation of art and sculptures is showcased through Gallery-g’s own AIP (Artist Initiative Programme) platform that promotes and showcases art that has never been viewed before. It also offers first time artists and artisans a platform to bring out the best in them. The nine-day long show will take Gallery-g’s AIP to the next level by entering into three different styles of art. 

Gallery-g explores three new regions, Andhra Pradesh with Kandi Narasimalu, Maharashtra with Priti Singh and the South Asian Region with its first ever show with Sri Lankan artist, Leo Pasquale. The exhibition explores three major themes embraced by this new generation of artists. One can find an aroma of affinity and affection for the home land in the works by artist Nasimhulu Kandi the artist in a very stylistically rich manner celebrates the many moments and episodes from his village in his work. He recreates them on his canvas keeping the unpretentious and natural attractiveness of the village folk intact. What makes the Sri Lankan artist Leo Pasquale unique is his artistic creations. Multiplicity of themes and technical styles is one of the salient features of his art. Some themes seem to be expressive of his personal life experiences while some signify the socio-political realities of the time. Technically he uses methods that are possible only in the computer and digital age, and in a large group of his work the geometrical approach is used meaningfully.

The show is on view from 22nd February till 2nd March 2014.

Holla Mohalla

(Work on display)

Visual arts Gallery, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi presents a two person show of paintings and photography by artists Cop Shiva and Suresh Muhukulam.

The show titled, ‘Holla Mohalla’  intends to soothe the senses and delight in the creativity of the two artists.

While Cop Shiva is a freelance photographer, interested in documenting life around and representing the spirit of our times, on the other hand Suresh Muthukulam is a young mural artist who expanded the rich opulence of many centuries old Kerala mural paintings tradition from temple, church and royal courtyard walls to novel and wider canvases.

The show is on view till 24th February 2014.

The Sacred Universe

( Work on display)

Bliss Art Gallery, Pune presents a show titled, ‘The Sacred Universe’ displayingworks by artist Rakhi Torani. 

The paintings revolve around Life and Universe and attempt to capture different elements of the universe which affect each form of life. The artist’s canvas demonstrates the effect of the universal changes on moods and emotions through a plethora of colours. Through these paintings, the artist has let go and surrendered herself to the wondrous experience of the universe, soaking every experience through colours in her paint brush and spreading it over canvas.

The show is on view till 8th March 2014.

( News Reports by Sushma Sabnis)