Kumar Gallery celebrates 55th year with an eclectic annual show of master artists

New Delhi: As Kumar Gallery, one of Delhi’s oldest galleries founded in 1955, enters its 55th year, it’s time for celebrations galore! Bringing forth never-seen-before works by some of most coveted master-artists as well as younger names, Kumar gallery presents its annual show titled Celebration 2010; a group exhibition of more than fifty works including paintings in oil on canvas, acrylics on paper and sculptures by twenty-seven artists from January 25, 2010 to February 9, 2010 at Kumar Gallery, 56, Sunder Nagar Market, New Delhi.

The artists whose work will be showcased are A. Ramachandran, A. P Santhanaraj, Anil Karanjai, Arpana Caur, Ashok Bhowmick, Dhiraj Choudhury, F.N. Souza, G.R Santosh, Gopal Ghose, Jai Zharotia, Jamini Roy, K.S. Kulkarni, Krishen Khanna, K.S Radhakrishnan, M.F Husain, Paresh Maity, Prodosh Das Gupta, Ram Kumar, Ramgopal Vijayvargiya, Seema Kohli, Sangeeta Gupta, Sohan Qadri, Sakti Burman, Satish Gujral, Sankho Chaudhury, Sharad Sonkusale and Shikha Sinha.

Sunit Kumar, Director, Kumar Gallery says: “Celebration 2010 dwells on India’s blooming modern artistic endeavour through a historical framework, bringing some of India’s most revered post-Independence modern masters along with contemporary artists. Through this exhibition, we have brought forth an inimitable collection of artworks from as early as 1960’s to the present times and presents a panoramic overview of Indian contemporary art as it has evolved.”

One of the iconic features of classical Indian art has been its ability to blend ephemeral humanistic emotions with a vivid sense of the eternal as well as the metaphysical and mythological. This was primarily achieved via a deep sense of spiritual devotion on the part of the artist. For instance a master of crosshatching, Ashok Bhowmick’s Bull and Bird Series has been inspired from the Bronze Age and Indus valley civilization. Explains the artist: “The earliest cave paintings and the coins had bull engravings on them. Bull symbolizes power and I respect it. Notice how the bird calmly sits over bull’s head. The proximity of force and feeble is what teaches us a lesson.”

Founder member of the Triveni Kala Sangam, K.S Kulkarni’s paintings depict the world of the Indian peasant, a world still throbbing to the drum-beats of the folk-dancers, swaying with rapture to the hypnotic melody of the shepherd’s flute, jogging along in the ancient bullock-cart. It is also a world which reveals the tensions and travails of the peasant, caught in the vortex of this fast-changing world yet stolidly withstanding its blows and buffets. A superb draftsman, Kulkarni was also a master colourist. The fantastic vibrancy he achieved by the soft, light strokes of his brush cast an aura of light through and around the boldly and vigorously delineated forms.

Yet another founder-member of the famous ‘Calcutta Group’, Prodosh Das Gupta brought the self-conscious individuality of a modern artist into sculpture. His love of the body - of man, woman or trees - links his work with the great tradition of Indian sculpture. He built his sculptural forms through the modeling technique, i.e., using clay or plaster, but the resulting effect was ‘lithic’, that is as if they are carved from a stone block maintaining the essential simplicity of the human form and scooping out just what is redundant.

A poet, vajrayan tantrik teacher and master-abstractionist, Sohan Qadri dislikes creating figurative visuals as according to him “they destroy the painting”. Instead, he uses signs reminiscent of tantrik and ritual symbolism which epitomizes “energy or Shakti” which moves. The most challenging thing in Qadri’s art is technique. His works are to be seen back to front. He allows the colour to percolate through the thick hand-made paper he paints on, allowing forms to develop on the other side that he then textures by tearing and blending the surface. Call them bindus or yonis, but they represent an alternative harmony of form and texture. Over the years his work though has gone through a form of distillation. Colour has become lighter and lines the residue of textures.

Another self-taught artist, abstractionist and a bureaucrat in Indian Revenue Service, Sangeeta Gupta had started her artistic journey making intricate drawings. She wields the brush with finesse, suggesting the viscosity of ink, the glossiness of lacquer, the mist of heights, the glow of the sun, and the inherent palette of rocks when wet. Strident and subtle strokes, dots, and amorphous patterns unfold energy channels.

One of the most promising young painters of contemporary Indian art, Paresh Maity started out as a painter in the academic style, but over the years began to shift from atmospheric scenery to representations of the human form. Gradually the imagery and form became more and more abstract until the young painter with flourish of a brush laden with transparent colours began to create paintings of great evanescent beauty. Deriving his inspiration as much from the surrounding landscape as from folk forms and contemporary life, Paresh Maity creates a web of fantasies and stories soaked in beauty, pulsating with romance, passion and intrigue. Though recognized as a water colourist, the young painter is equally at ease with oil on canvas as is evident in his work titled Rani.

Shelly Jyoti and Laura Kina presents their latest exhibition titled Indigo

Event: Indigo: New works by Shelly Jyoti and Laura Kina, an exhibition of around forty new works in mediums like hand embroidery on khadi, acrylic on fabric, hand stenciled Sanskrit calligraphy and textile embroidery on canvas by Indian artist Shelly Jyoti and USA-based artist Laura Kina. The exhibition is on from December 23, 2009 to December 28, 2009 at Open Palm Court Gallery, India Habitat Centre New Delhi. Time: 11 am-7pm.


While the preview of the exhibition was held at Red Earth Gallery, Vadodara, Gujarat on December 15-16, 2009, it would also be displayed at Nehru Art Centre, Mumbai from January 12, 2010 to January 18, 2010.


Shelly Jyoti and Laura Kina decided to collaborate in 2008-2009, considering their mutual interest in textile history, pattern & decoration. They began by thinking about the intersections of their own ethnic and national positions in relation to fabrics. For this exhibition in particular, Shelly Jyoti’s Indigo Narratives utilize traditional embroidery and embellishments along with heritage symbols belonging to traveling ethnic communities who settled in coastal Gujarat while Laura Kina’s Devon Avenue Sampler series focuses on a contemporary Desi/Jewish community in Chicago, IL.


Shelly Jyoti, a visual artist, independent curator, fashion designer, poet and researcher, lives and works in Vadodara, India. She is trained in fashion design and clothing technology at the National Institute of Fashion Technology, New Delhi and has completed her Masters degree in English Literature from Punjab University in Chandigarh.


Her writings and paintings have been published internationally. Her works are in collection with Sahitya Akademi, the journal of Indian English literature. She is an advisory board member of Disha, a non-profit organizations dedicated to helping children with autism, and Socleen, a non-profit environmental organization.


Laura Kina is an artist and scholar living in Chicago, IL. She is an Associate Professor of Art, Media and Design, Vincent de Paul Professor, and Director of Asian American Studies at DePaul University. She earned her MFA from the University of Illinois at Chicago and her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is a 2009-2010 DePaul University Humanities Fellow. Her Devon Avenue Sampler series is funded in part by the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences and a University Research Council Grant from DePaul University.


The exhibition is a must-see as it throws light on the history of indigo, from its torrid colonial past in India to the indigo-dyed Japanese folk kasuri fabrics, from boro patchwork quilts and the working class blue jeans in the United States to the blue threads of a Jewish prayer tallis!

Gallery Espace presented a mega art event on “Magic Realism” as its 20th Year Celebration at Lalit Kala Akademi

New Delhi, December 19: GALLERY ESPACE recently celebrated its 20th anniversary with an international art exhibition of unprecedented scale titled ‘LO REAL MARAVILLOSO: MARVELOUS REALITY’ 2009 at Lalit Kala Akademi, Rabindra Bhawan, Copernicus Marg, New Delhi. The exhibition was based on the theme of “magic realism” and inspired from sources as diverse as Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Laura Esquivel, Salman Rushdie, Joanne Harrism, Mikhail Bulgakov, Milan Kundera and Louis de Bernieres; and included in its gamut video art, drawings, paintings, photography, site-specific installations and sculptures by 36 artists from across the globe.

Renu Modi, Director, Gallery Espace said: “Since the time the gallery started in 1989, our USP has always been to put together highly specialized, medium based shows. Time and again, Espace has cut across boundaries by exhibiting works of different nationalities, genders and cultures. Espace has always treaded the unconventional path and introduced to the Indian art market new genres like sculptures and drawings when they were relatively unknown mediums. It is apt, therefore, that Magic Realism is the theme of our 20th anniversary show and I am excited to show such a wide array of disciplines all under one roof.”


The gallery began working on the show way back in early 2007 when it touched base with the artists worldwide “whose art practices and sensibilities would respond and react to the theme”. The show includes works of 36 artists amongst whom are internationally acclaimed names like Anila Rubiku from Albania, Sutapa Biswas from United Kingdom, Rina Banerjee from New York, Bharti Kher, Ranbir Kaleka, Chintan Upadhyay, Jagannath Panda, Manjunath Kamath and Shilpa Gupta among others.

The show was designed by Mark Prime who made a special created ambience where one came face-to-face with Waswo X Waswo’s hand-made Krishna image or a huge tree sculpture by Chintan Upadhyay which ws suspended from the ceiling. Manjunath Kamath’s life-size fire glass automobile wrenching white rabbits into exhaust fumes shared ceiling space with Chintan’s work while Shilpa Gupta’s video allowed you to interact with images in the video while performance artist Nikhil Chopra’s ghost images make one wonder if there are any boundaries between the real and the fantastic.



Present on the occasion were Renu Modi (Director, Gallery Espace), Rajiv and Ruhi Savara (The Savara Foundation of Arts), Italian Ambassador Roberto Toscano with wife Francesca, theatre personality Sita Raina, socialite Kalyani Chawla, Kuchipudi danseuse Rashmi Vaidialingam, gallerists Ashish Anand (Delhi Art Gallery), Peter Nagy (Nature Morte), Tunty Chauhan (Gallery Threshold), Sunaina Anand (Art Alive Gallery), curator Ina Puri, Aruna Vasudev, cultural impressario Rajeev Sethi, artists Amit Ambalal, Bandeep Singh, Barbara Ellmerer, Bharti Kher with husband Subodh Gupta, Ebenezer Sunder Singh, Gigi Scaria, G.R. Iranna with wife Pooja, Ishan Tankha, Jagannath Panda, Manjunath Kamath, Maxine Henryson, Pushpamala N, Ranbir Kaleka, Sheba Chhachhi, Sonia Mehra Chawla, Tanmoy Samanta, Waswo X. Waswo, Satish Gujral with wife Kiran, Manu Parekh with wife Madhvi, Veer Munshi, Harshvardhan, Gopi Gajwani, Maithali Parekh, Rajendra Tiku, Mithu Sen, Alka Raghuvanshi, George Martin, Ravi Aggarwal, Kanchan Chander and Shamshad Hussain.

Yuriko Lochan Creates a new ‘self’ portrait in her solo exhibition at Alliance Francaise

New Delhi: It’s not easy to live in a foreign land, make it your home and even more creditably, make a mark for yourself as a creative person. Yuriko Lochan has not only done all of these, but gone a step ahead by adding a refreshingly new element of nudes and self portraits on her canvases for a solo show of watercolours and acrylics titled Immanence to Transcendence at Galerie Romain Rolland, Alliance Francaise de Delhi from November 27, 2009 to November 30, 2009.

Born in Osaka, Japan in 1962 and a Masters in Fine Arts from Kyoto University, Japan, Yuriko married Prof Rajeev Lochan, the present Director of NGMA, to settle down permanently in Delhi. Her work, therefore, carries frequent references to Indian philosophy and myth, and in a way that’s impossible without a deep appreciation of the Indian way of life. She has been actively participating in various group exhibitions and art camps, and has gained an enviable popularity in the art circles.

The current solo exhibition, coming after a gap of over five years in Delhi, offers a comparison between two kinds of expressions that the artist calls “Immanence and Transcendence”. While Immanence refers to works done in watercolour on Japanese paper that create a soft and subtle subconscious imagery, the latter consists of recent works done in acrylics on canvas and are replete with images that are loud yet simple in presentation and direct in expression like the language of nature.
Says Yuriko Lochan: “Since I have started to live here, I have been continuously trying to transcend any category of identification which one may think for me - as a Japanese, Indian, artist, woman, married and so on. But, it’s my aim to become truly universal, only by sheer excellence of the work which I create.” She further adds: “This universal quality is gained by always being conscious of one’s own origin yet looking out at the world with responsible, intelligent and flexible eyes.”

The current body of work in the exhibition is divided into five series namely Prakriti series (2004 – 2007), Tree of Life series (2004 – 2008), Banana Leaf series (2005-2008), ‘Self’ series & Calligraphy in ink on paper. Explains Yuriko: “My earlier watercolours are an interpretation of visual elements that India has given me, combined with the medium and technique imbued from my origin. The Banana Leaf series and Prakriti series, done on Japanese paper are kind of a mindscape. Here, I dwell in images which are more subtle, vague and soft.”

While Prakriti (the counterpart of Purusha) series consists of a woman’s glory that is representative of the elements of this world, Tree of Life series displays a dominant use of grapes which is considered as the symbol of life in Christianity. Banana Leaf series is the output of artist’s inspiration from her stay in Kerala. She says: “The experience of the beautiful place is marked with the vast impression of the Arabian sea, the air of the jungle filled with energy, and powerful but modest people living with nature. These are the motifs which lead me to create a series of paintings, surround the feeling of loneliness, sea breeze, and flowering banana trees promising a plentiful yield within no time!” The banana leaves in her watercolors are full of intricate details that are in perfect harmony.

In Yuriko’s more recent acrylics on canvas portraying the same banana leaves, the consciousness in the landscape grows into a definite viewpoint in a large work titled Shore.

The most recent ‘Self’ series, done in acrylics on canvas, are the artist’s effort to realize a new state of existence of her own ‘self’. Here, she consciously uses self- portraits not to make a socio-political statement but to represent the universal image of a woman’s existence. Her Self series is a departure from being the sophisticated, observant artist who is consciously deciphering Japanese and Indian nuances of art to become the totally relaxed, free flowing and a definitely more open ‘self’. She refrains from making her Japanese origin evident in this series, of course, other than the golden cloud on the background dominantly embellishing the main iconic image that subtly suggests the Indian traditional knowledge - Mudra.On the other hand, her series of calligraphy in ink on paper is a spontaneous, free flowing yet controlled expression of art.

Says Yuriko: “In the large acrylic canvases, the sudden appearance of ‘self’ in the natural landscape inevitably breaks the composition into three or more panels. It is slightly different from the panels in the watercolour landscapes on Shikishi mounted paper. While in both the cases, the composition of each panel actively and consciously relates and influences each other, yet in the earlier watercolours, the panel effect was more intentional but later the purpose of using panels was thematic.”

Sums up Yuriko about her art practice in India: “The journey is not always easy. The achievement is that I am still at it! Till the time I had not realized that I could not do anything else other than painting, it was very difficult. Now that I am on my way towards finding my niche as an artist, I am a fulfilled person.”

Colombian Sculptor Claudia Hakim Shows Sculptures In Metal For The First Time In India

New Delhi: To commemorate the celebration of 50 years of diplomatic relations between India & Colombia, National Gallery of Modern Art presents Signs of Skin; a solo show of metal sculptures by Colombian sculptor Claudia Hakim from November 11, 2009 to November 30, 2009 at National Gallery of Modern Art, Jaipur House, India Gate, New Delhi.

Says Prof Rajeev Lochan, Director, NGMA: “The constant factor in Claudia’s different thematic investigations throughout the diverse stages of creative process is a sense of modular construction, geometry and purity. Claudia Hakim’s sculptures, a significant milestone in Colombia’s artistic landscape, communicate a particularly rich artistic language in a clear, direct and concrete manner and are being shown in India for the first time.”

Beginning her artistic career in the late 1970s, Claudia Hakim has explored different thematic interests and always proposed precise and clear responses. In the creative process, she applies her skill and clarity to the definition of the sculptural language. She transmits her ability to see beyond appearances through the diversity of her formal creations; constructing forms by building, weaving and assembling the different elements which she later wraps and unwraps in a playful definition of her sculptural aesthetics but, always within an essential modular format.

Hence, inspired by fabric weaving, jewellery (magnified necklaces and arm rings) and textiles, the sculptor manipulates and transforms basic elements into superlative large sculptures with the use of rings, bolts, screws, nuts, springs, metallic sheets and steel mesh to create geometric shapes, triangles and circles for her present exhibition. The work proposes a variety of orderly and rigorous geometrical forms. At times, the forms are looser, they move more freely. The multiplication of forms leads, invariably, to a purist aesthetic proposal - clear, clean, defined. The tactile, sensorial appeal and the malleability of the sculptures make them even richer and more magnificent environmental sculptures.

The themes that the sculptor addresses and the new ideas that are suggested are conveyed to the visitor in a magical way, encouraging them to participate in her works. She has the capability to induce senses to the point of generating a wish to interact with it and, even to caress them, by a spatiality that generates in the observer a shuddering surprise before leading the observer to immersing in the always encouraging environment of fantasy. Perhaps the apparent contradiction that takes place between the materials and the idea, without leaving aside an astonishing result, establishes a game that has a playful intention and, in turn, an undertone of irony. In this process, the assembly of objects and the ensuing formal findings, that entangle with the most uplifting modernist tradition, has allowed the artist to move about the twists and turns of a permanent essay which is in turn, and fed by a meticulous rigor, pushes away the results of any type of formula, or of a conceptual monotony, to produce an endless number of images and insinuations.

The need to express herself through a textile language, in which she makes the eastern expression of her lineage and the Andean richness of her living environment manifest, the artist is able to establish an unsettling grammar of geometries and suggestions that bring to mind an untold number of associations with some of the large art movements in the 20th century. It is a piece of work with an exceptional refinement, which endless readings establish many possible levels of interrelations with the spectator based on a deep reasoning by the artist that, consequently, suggests a permanent reflection by the audience.

Thus, her piece of works exudes extraordinary formal freedom and suggests very long-winded paths. There is no doubt that, based on what could be defined as a visual instigation established by a series of elements apparently unusual, Claudia Hakim ends by rendering valuable, and especially audacious testimony, of the unending possibilities that matter has when related to art and, in particular, with the plasticity that, no doubt, struggles between abstraction and figuration, without losing sight, in any way, of a lucid dimension that fascinates the spectator.

Claudia Hakim is, thus, a weaver of dreams and of radiance, who works with materials that result from the industry and from the overt contemporaneousness of everything that is related to technology. She proposes, in line with the great constructivists, all kinds of geometric and luminous abstractions thanks to the masterful use of spaces or orifices. It is then, a proposal that nourishes particularly from that counterpoint offered by light and opacity and that strives to give a new dimension to the creator-spectator and creator-space relationships, based on the establishment of some sui generis environments, like immersed in a universe of fiction full of poetry, that arise from the interaction of everything that under other circumstances would have a commonplace and un-transcendental reading.

She oscillates between two artistic proposals: bi-dimensionality and tri-dimensionality. This oscillation is typical of those who craft their work on the basis of the multiplication of a basic element. Hakim understands the language of weaving, and she applies it and transports it to the realm of sculpture, where an oscillation is created between the rigidity of the material and the flexibility of the results. There are hardly any Colombian artists who can handle such extremes. The power of conviction, the passion and the creative charisma are the best weapons of Hakim’s sculptural communication. Another constant in her work is the presence of industrial materials. During the years in which she worked with fibres (1978-1990), preparing the basic modular element implied weaving the fabric. In the last two decades, her work is being made out of industrial remnants. For many, the use of industrial material involves recycling. In the hands of Claudia Hakim, industrial refuse is turned into sculptures of tremendous artistic magnificence.

Gallery Ragini presents Rohit Sharma’s Romance with Delhi Roads

New Delhi: With its aim of supporting the emerging contemporary artists, Gallery Ragini presents Romancing the Road, a solo exhibit of artworks by Rohit Sharma at Choko La, Khan Market, New Delhi from November 13, 2009 to December 10, 2009.

What’s interesting is that the opening of the exhibition will be marked with an evening of poetry by art curator Alka Raghuvanshi, poets Robinson, Laxmi Shankar Vajpayi and Ravinder Malhotra. Says Nidhi Jain, Director, Gallery Ragini: “Art and poetry have an interminable bond and evoke feelings of oneness. Both are reflections of sensitive souls trying to create, understand and contribute to human growth at the highest level. Through this endeavor of bringing the two art forms together, we attempt to explore the romance between poetry and art in an evening of poets reading their works amongst art works and people who love and care about art and poetry.”

Coming back to the exhibits, Rohit’s works focus on the various nuances of everyday life associated with the city roads. Says Rohit Sharma: “Every city has a way of encompassing individuals in its own way. The diversity of the Delhi is extremely spell-binding as there exists landmarks representing the ancient, medieval and modern that gives Delhi a unique identity. The roads that lead on to these landmarks have their own stories to tell. These works thus, talk about Delhi, its antiquity, rich cultural heritage and constant growth.”

Rohit’s romance of the roads has a timeless quality about it as he documents the various periods and the transition that has taken place. His fascination for minute details makes the works subtle-offering a whole new perspective to the viewer making one wonder if there is more to a road than just the destination.

The cow, that plays an integral part of the works, finds itself at crossroads within the changing urban scenario. Interplaying with the maze of the road-converging, diverging, Rohit’s cows are in a state of question, answer, conflict, dilemma and most of the time in deep meditative contemplation.

Rohit explores the idea of Kamadhenu- the mythical cow of fulfilling all desires and wishes it to be true in today’s context. He shows the helplessness of the Kamadhenu by painting it black, showing it is impossible for the Kamadhenu as well to fulfill the needs of today’s time. His portrayal of the white and black Kamadhenu together shows that they are very much two sides of the same coin. The work titled Kamdhenu with milk displays how human breed wants to empty it of all that it has to offer merrily leaving it as a shadow of its former self.


The use of red in the background in most of the works is a conscious effort to draw attention to the road rage evident in our city. It also in many ways signifies attraction for the outsider. The riddle for the young child to make the calf reach its mother in the work titled Puzzled is a beautiful way to communicate about the present state. On the other hand, Modern Cow shows the replacement of cows by the milk vans. The modern cow (milk van) which travels everyday from the outskirts of Delhi on four wheels makes an interesting satirical comment. The depiction of the vehicles with tails, bringing milk into the city and is a reflection of the cultural change with life moving at an uncontrollable pace.

Rohit is touched by the obvious and easy to ignore but none can deny the role played in the life of denizens of Delhi by the ubiquitous auto-rickshaw. The young man with a backpack pushing the auto-rickshaw makes a subtle comment as how much goes in everyday journey-the cajoling, pleading and threatening. His vintage car of a bygone era is a reflection of the attachment of the owner not willing to let go taking pride in his possession. He paints his vintage cars golden, showing what they truly are.

These works overall, are a reflection of Rohit’s intimacy with his city, his love of its various simple aspects from the roads, the cows, the old cars, inviting all of us to look at the obvious with a new understanding and sensibility.

Going Back to the Darkroom to find Order in Chaos

New Delhi: In an era where art photography has become synonymous with digital prints and dependent on photoshop manipulation, here is a photographer who makes the fast-vanishing dark room his studio and a Buddhist concept his muse! Investment banker-turned photographer Siddhartha Tawadey exhibits yet another remarkable collection of more than twenty photographs in his upcoming solo exhibition titled ‘TRANSIENCE - A photographic salutation to Impermanency’ at Travancore Art Gallery, Travancore Palace, Kasturba Gandhi Marg, New Delhi from November 12, 2009 to November 22, 2009.

Born in Calcutta, Siddhartha Tawadey’s first creative influences came from his mother who taught him “how to look and wonder at the natural world” around him, inheriting her love of collecting and finding beauty in the smallest pebble or leaf. Though his ambition was always to be a fine art photographer, family pressures led him to pursue an MBA from Middlesex School of Business (London) and enter the corporate sector as a banker with Global Funds Solution, London. As providence would have it, a failed business persuaded him to pursue photography with a renewed passion. He studied Art Architecture and Photography from St Martin’s School of Design (London), Painting and Photography from City University (London) and Photo Fusion - Advanced and alternative Darkroom printing (London) and returned to fine art photography to express ideas and concerns from an individual standpoint with a particular theme.

Siddhartha Tawadey says: “I create from various references that I find in art; whether it be the surrealist qualities of the paintings of Rene Magritte or Salvador Dali, to the abstract expressionism of Rothko and Mondrian to the sheer beauty of a Monet and Seurat or the striking and involved imagery of Van Gogh.”
“My ideas, references and inspiration have been largely influenced by my education and work spanning continents and cities. Thus, my photographs reflect a more prosaic approach to photographic seeing - a fascination with the everyday things, with landscape, both natural and urban, repetition, shadows of memory, the layering of history, order and chaos is all present in my work.”

“There may be other, more descriptive or poetic words that may be used to define the “pattern” that connects the images, but the simplest meta-pattern is this: I take snapshots of moments in time and space in which a peace washes over me, and during which I sense a deep interconnectedness between my soul, the moment and the everyday world around me.”

“I work abstractly and non-linearly – however, my designs do have trends over time, usually with the goal of delaying recognition so a photograph may have a better dialogue with its viewer, free of labels. Recent techniques have included seeing without gravity, designing in soft focus, and using shapes to continue the photograph beyond the physical frame.”

The theme of his current show is based on Mujo, a medieval concept of Buddhism, literally meaning ‘no’ (mu) ‘permanence’ (jo) and also known as Anittya in Sanskrit, Transience encompasses the impermanent and momentary aspects of our existence and that of the things around us, including birth, growth, change, decay, death, organic forms, constructs of society and time. Transience exists in organic forms, constructs of society and time itself. The past consumes the present while we move constantly into the uncertainty of the future.

As a photographer, Tawadey, however, has moved from the figurative genre that he showed in his debut show titled ‘Silent voices of an Unseen India’ in September 2008, where he displayed an intimate philosophical exploration of time, memory and history. His second show titled ‘Un Vague de Reves’ in March 2009 set a trend of sorts with Triptychs in photography where he juxtaposed three images in one picture to portray the inner realities of the subconscious.

In the current show, through the universal language of abstraction and the use of metaphor, he reflects on his personal and universal concerns about the transience of life and nature. By creating work without the constraints of representation, the work can exist in its own right, as an object if you like, which may draw from the viewer a sensation, a memory, a collective recognition of the beauty of form, a perception of space or the purity of a line.

According to him: “Photography can be described not as capturing reality, but rather as an abstraction of time and place. What may have been real now only exists on paper in the swirl of chemicals and fixatives that hold it in place."

He continues: "What then of the photographic image that is in itself abstract? Our focus shifts from the recognizable, indexical form, to composition, tone, line and the intent? But what if the image gives us both? What if the image presents a real, recognizable form in an abstract presentation? The results are much more complex than in abstract painting because the eye is conditioned to read photographs by their surface, to take it for what it is, and therefore not question more than what the eye can see. The images challenge the viewer to these specific assumptions that we draw from the photography mediums so called reality."

For instance in one of his work, the photograph on first glance shows an eyelid but on a closer look you can see a foetus captured in those eyeballs. In another photograph, one really has to look deep and long to judge whether the eyes are of a child or a woman; the face being distorted so as to make the features unrecognizable. In yet another image, one can see two trees and an outline of a hut still intact while a strong wind is swirling pass by. The photographer tries to capture stability which is very essential in one’s relationships. For one of his photograph, the photographer had specifically gone to Dindigul, Chennai “just to capture the movement of windmills”. Other works include Elephant Boy, Mystic, Soul and Monet.

However, what remains his signature style is the desolation in each of his photographs. The lonely feeling in the vast spaces and the paradox referred to in this exhibition is that in order to be, we must change; when we cease to change we cease to exist. Everything is in movement. It is this movement that the photographer has attempted to capture through his images.

In an era dominated by digital prints, Siddhartha Tawadey still favours the traditional concept of darkroom and also incorporates photograms, which were made before the advent of photography. For him, the darkroom is where he is the happiest, as he is in control of everything – from the images taken from his 5 D Mark 2 Cannon or the F 90 Nikon that are processed by hand and then contact printed to the images which are enlarged using an old Fuji enlarger and rendered on resin coated Hahnemuhle archival paper. From scanning them on the latest technology scanners and then printing them from Epson Stylus 9880 professional wide format printer on the archival paper using the latest Epson Ultra Chrome K3 archival pigmented inks to the way he wants to play with lights of the lens, to the washing of the prints - everything gives him immense joy just to see how he can transform the photographs on to print.

Quiz him that one can do the same in Photoshop, pat comes the reply that “there is restriction in using the mouse on computer.” When asked about the difficulties he faces in his photographic journey, he quips “it’s been a Herculean task to find a darkroom or good quality printing paper in India. As each fine art print is made manually with a degree of dodging and burning, no two photographs ever come out exactly the same. I like to print on fiber-based papers, which are the traditional papers, but the handling, washing and processing is very time consuming. Also, apart from the expensive fees for studying photography, there aren’t any short term courses available here.”

Tawadey’s big break came with the photo – essay at the Tate Modern (UK) but the latest achievement that has him excited is a soon-to-be-launched book on lateral ties between India and Colombia titled ‘Una apasionada familia humana’ for which he has provided images. What also inspires him is his collaboration with the famous photographer Diego Ferago with whom he “will be putting up a video installation at Barcelona Airport (Spain) next year”, he adds.