I am a visual artist with my practice anchored in oil painting, along with my decade-long rigorous training in
the Indian classical dance of Odissi, under the tutelage of critically acclaimed exponent Madhavi Mudgal in
New Delhi. The rich methodology of Odissi dance: its storytelling, gestures and costume history, literature,
and an in-depth understanding of the human body, along with Indian classical music imparts a sacred working knowledge of countless bygone generations. This embodiment is the backbone of my visual and kinetic operation.
My interlaced practice aims to bring together issues pertaining to queerness through a sacred lens, and entwine ecology through an ecofeminist perspective. Ancient Sanskrit literary texts like the 2nd c. AD dramaturgical tome ‘Natyashastra’ provides a fertile ground in my work for re-inventing speculations and responding to contemporary situations, through regular collaborative ventures. The painted canvases become a playground
for mischief, sensuality, and denial, resulting in a hypnotic world charged with emotive tones of love, wonder and compassion. The erotic is intertwined with the deeply spiritual. Inseparable, the two create a heady mixture of lust and devotion, desire and submission – like the resonating notes on tanpura drone.
Since late 2019, I have been conceptualizing ‘neo [queer] ragamala paintings’ as part of an ecosystem that integrates an emic approach to the study of Hindustani (North Indian) classical raga music with visual art components – resulting in finding inventive ways of relating queer male bodies into an ecocentric paradigm.
These new works take an entry point from the historic ‘ragamala’ paintings of North and Central India
(16th to 18th century CE) which portray a given musical melody [raga] into anthropomorphic representation situated in a diverse portrayal of nature. Each set of notes in a specific raga is associated with peculiar colors,
and emotions. For example, deep midnight blue or indigo hue is the color of sensuality.
The practical knowledge of this system, along with periodic conversations with Indian musicologists, scholars
and seasoned music practitioners help the aim of my paintings to become: the organic containers.
Where the resplendent bodies oscillate between gestural abstract marks.
The studio thus becomes a site of research, recording and manifold manifestations.
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