NEW DELHI: The first year of a new decade is barely a month old, and the news from within the country, as well as the world outside, has been largely disquieting. While everyone has their own ways of responding to crises, personal as well as general, one exhibition is examining the convergence of many of these problems.
Being held at the India Fine Arts & Crafts Society (AIFACS), the exhibition, titled Conflux, was inaugurated by Padma Shri Professor Biman Bihari Das, Chairman, AIFACS, on January 31. Comprising a group of eight artists who are also old friends, the exhibition is a creative response to the socio-political issues most negatively impacting our lives, be it politics, environmental concerns, the status of women, child labour and the relevance of national history.
For instance, Sumanta Chakraborty’s digital montages celebrate women and the many roles they play in life. According to the artist, “Womanhood is a conjunction of contradictions. It’s hard to balance being glamorous and picture perfect in one hand and to manage mundane domestic chores on the other. The modern woman strikes this balance quite well. But this archaic role-play is being challenged by women now and yet it’s also something we are happy to romanticise about.” For Conflux, Chakraborty exhibited Backstage, a digital collage on archival canvas.
Through his acrylic on canvas, titled Beauty lies in the Nature 1, Ranabir Saha reflected on unsustainable human habits and expansions which have literally inundated our world with environmental disasters. Given that climate change is one of the most urgent threats facing our planet as well as our future, the artist’s work deals with his concerns about the effect of man on nature.
Other works include those by artist Indranil Ganguly (who exhibited an untitled abstract digital print on canvas), and sculptor Koushik Biswas (who turned in a bronze composition, themed around the price nature pays for wanton human greed). At: All India Fine Arts & Crafts Society, Rafi Marg Till: February 6, 11:00 am to 6:00 pm