| Making
Space for Cornered Objects
There
is a strange almost magical tension that breathes life into inanimate
objects which, in turn, suffuses Vishakha Apte’s paintings
and prints with life. This tension, acting like strong but invisible
centrifugal and centripetal forces, dictates the distance between
the objects, holding them in the exact place that the artist ordered.
Often the objects appear to float, defying gravity, the unseen floor
and the supporting walls disappearing in a fathomless colour mist
of blue and grey.
What are these objects? Sometimes
they are ordinary, homely stuff – furniture, books and magazines
– that sit suspended in space. At other times, the images
are blurred, indistinct and then they could be anything –
sticks, a banana peel, pipes, sheets of paper tickled by a gust
of breeze. Once in a while there appears an outstretched body part
of a human resident living in that space, which expertly connects
the objects with a living human being who uses them. They all come
together on canvas and paper to create a space that at once straddles
the real and the imagined. Often this need is outgrown by ‘animating’
instead the objects themselves, which go beyond their mere functional
nature to become living forms, sometimes taking on subtle shapes
of living beings.
Then there are the corners. Usually
ignored as nothing more than architectural essentials, these niches
come alive in Vishakha’s paintings to define the environment
of the interior and emphasize the angularity it usually defines
– a corner of a table, half a chair, an open cupboard door
or a shelf, a photo frame. In some of the new works though, the
objects appear to have defied their boxed-in nature and freed themselves
of any architectural constrictions. Instead they appear pushed to
the edges of the painting in order to create an illusion of eternal,
horizon-less space in the middle. The search for space thus becomes
a material and spiritual quest.
What makes Vishakha’s paintings
and prints exciting to see and interpret is in the way she is able
to fuse the depth and range of expression with commendable technical
virtuosity. The intensity of her drawing shines through with delicate,
thin, almost wisp-like strokes. While they define the objects in
their realistic avataar, the deliberate blurring also adds to a
dream-like, intentionally produced effect. Vishakha’s remarkable
use of the pastel colour palette that washes over the works further
heightens the feeling of a suspension between the real and the surreal,
between the presentation of the actual object and the abstraction
of its essence.
Commenting on her work, Vishakha
says, “In my work, the objects release themselves from their
mundane utilitarian context and convert into pure pictorial forms.
They disappear in translucent space with occasional traces of shadows.
In the pictorial space different sights blend with each other and
nothing is in a prearranged order underlining the uncertainty, improbability
and at times the mysteries that life presents.” When a concept
is thus genuinely felt and experienced and the artist has the expertise
to wield the tools at her disposal to turn that conceptual strength
into a stimulating visual expression, artworks that stir one’s
intellect and emotion are the result.
Sandhya Bordewekar
Bhopal/Baroda, March 2008
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