Expressions of art and soul

There was an abundance of creative energy at the Delhi Art Summit, reports Mona Mehta
Spirituality is like sex -- very personal. I refuse to talk about it openly,” says artist Anjolie Ela Menon. Remind her that she did create Ganeshas in crystal and even painted Christ and she says, “I don’t even want to go there.” Period. But it seems most others don’t have such reservation, going by the plethora of canvases on display that speak the language of the soul, at the recently concluded India Art Summit in Delhi.Some have overtly religious themes while others merely offer a hint of an equation with the eternal!
Apart from maestros like Syed Haider Raza, whose evolved perspective shines through — particularly in his series of paintings on the Bindu and other artworks, there are other artists, too, who have expressed metaphysical and other-worldly themes in their works. Seema Kohli, for instance, whose work was inspired by the Greek mythological character ‘Ouroboros’ — a snake which is shown trying to swallow its own tail — which is a metaphor for the endless cycle of birth and rebirth; also referred to as infinity. “In my work, I use this concept to show that the soul undergoes 84 million births before its final liberation,” says Kohli.
British sculptor Caroline Rothwell displays a PVC installation called Lexicon (Newton’s Tree) that represents the concepts of gravity, evolution and wisdom. “This work refers to physicist Isaac Newton. He excites me because of his varied interests: he broke new ground in Math and Physics, yet, he was also an alchemist and spiritualist. I’m really interested in this non-linear pursuit of meaning,” says Rothwell. Her animal sculptures, say experts, have much in common with the Ouroboros, ‘suggesting cycles that begin anew as soon as they end, an eternal self-consumption’. “I started creating species and worlds that are familiar to us from the past but are changed, and updated for the present,” explains Rothwell.
Adding to the spiritual quotient of the show was Jayasri Burman’s work titled Dharitri, depicting the divine feminine in ink and oil on canvas. Done in her trademark folk art style, Dharitri shows the web of life in which feminine energy takes various forms — now as mother, now as a little girl, holding the universe together.
Adding a touch of black humour to the religious symbolism is Baroda-based artist Balaji Ponna’s work with the following inscription: ‘Because we are so many — gods...we became — street dogs’. Ponna’s creation — wooden stands on which stand fibreglass figures of Rama and Jesus is a comment on human suffering in the name of religion. “In Hyderabad and Vishakhapatnam, I come across many 11 to 13-year-olds dressed up as gods, and they are always asking for money. Through his art, Ponna tries to show that there are people who suffer from the presence of so many gods, just as there are others who take advantage of gods’ names. Then there are those who are sensitive about it; many who fight for it and some who die for it. This is true whether or not they have seen God!
The three-day art summit held in the third week of January was a hub of energy with some 84 galleries exhibiting works by 570-odd artists, both from India and abroad. The exhibition pavilion was bursting with creative energy — and this continued to pulsate through the veins of the 1,28,000 visitors — long after they had left the summit.
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