Where paintings transform into poetry

While working on a 10x24 feet painting for a hotel in Chennai, Seema Kohli realised that her imagery could be transformed into poetry.
The weave that portrays her thoughts about life
The weave that portrays her thoughts about life

BENGALURU: While working on a 10x24 feet painting for a hotel in Chennai, Seema Kohli realised that her imagery could be transformed into poetry. She wrote and collated several poems based on nature of creation.Seema says, “These poems are an expression of the paintings I have done so far. It is my journey, a quest to understand who am I and where I come from.”

Seema Kohli
Seema Kohli

The symbolism of creation and evolution is represented by the act of weaving cloth. She will be presenting a narrative - In Silence, Secret Speaks. The performance will include a woven art piece from the mills of Sitapur, Uttar Pradesh, by Mohammed Salim, facilitated by the Raj Art Initiative. “When I was thinking of music for my narration, loom came to mind. The sound of the loom, changing the thread and designing the cloth is so rhythmic.”

Seema adds that the weaver collaborated with her and designed her expression on the weave. Though it is based on the sound of weave, she says, the performance will not have any sound or music of any kind. Her narration will be presented by Bharatnatyam dancer Lokesh Bharadwaj.

Lokesh will be doing a narrative performance for the first time. “The movements will be based on the pace of the narration. The movements may or may not be related to the phrases in the poems. It is half structured and half improvised,” he says. The movements would also include showcasing some shapes related to her paintings. “As I am a Yoga enthusiast, my performance is more about asbtract movements to feel the silence and stillness in life,” he says.

He is also collaborating with Seema for the first time. “The chief preparation that I had to do for the performance is understanding what she’s trying to say. Once I understood and implemented that in my performance, the movements became effortless. I listen to her poems again and again,” he adds.
Seema calls herself a multidisciplinarian artist. “I haven’t made a shift to poetry. The word I would use is fluidity. Certain images demand certain mediums. But After everything, I always go back to pen and ink on paper or canvas,” she says.

In Silence the Secret Speaks
A narrative performance by Seema Kohli and Lokesh Bharadwaj will be held at National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) on August 13 at 6pm.

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