Exhibition takes viewers closer to nature

Kolkata-based artist Jayashree Chakravartys ongoing solo exhibition in the national capital attempts to take the viewers a step closer to nature, unravelling everything that appears "webbed and connected" in the natural habitat.

The exhibition "A Wired Ecology" opened for public viewing on January 29 and will continue till February 22.

"I have recorded how the elements of nature have been changing over the years as we are allowing structures to be built anywhere. We have been occupying so much space for ourselves that the natural space is being affected and does not appear the way it did earlier," said Chakravarty, who studied at the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Baroda.

In the exhibition, Chakravarty keenly observes how change of seasons leaves its mark and traces on the surface of the terrain as well as how a storm or the pouring rain create their own imprints on the face of the earth.

Within the rich layering in her works, viewers find delicate roots or skeins of medicinal plants as well as ropes submerged and buried under, while some tangible ones, like swollen veins, breathing closer to its skin.

The canvas carries raw furrows of pigment that the artist directly creates on the canvas with a rare brilliance, unpremeditated and messy, but capturing the palpable connectedness of nature-forms.

The process by which Chakravarty creates her work is equally fascinating. There are layers of paper and botanic materials, fabric and mud that are used to recreate the many years of experiences she has had with nature.

She has held exhibitions in India and abroad, including museums in Nice (France), Singapore, the US and Berlin.

--IANS

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