Spiralling into a script: Exhibition on contours opens at IHC

Artists don't find forms, rather forms find artists, believes Vishal Joshi, an artist who works with various mediums, and is currently exhibiting his paintings and wooden installations on the form that found him: the spiral.

Titled 'Contours', the exhibition of over 25 wood-metal and acrylic-on-canvas works has been curated by senior art critic-curator Uma Nair and presented by Nipun Soin. It kicked off today at the India Habitat Centre (IHC).

Joshi, who describes himself as a "pure mythological person", draws the connection between the form of spiral and spirituality.

"In Buddhism, meditation waves travel in the form of spirals. All our 'kundalinis' and 'chakras' are connected in the form of spiral," he told IANS.

His montages are made of charred wood and brass spirals, painted in the golden colour to reflect a certain concept of light.

The spiral form is the life-blood of his art and it courses through all that he creates, Uma Nair wrote in her curatorial note.

Joshi, who is fascinated by the uniqueness of each spiral, said it can never be repeated without deliberate effort.

He bears an Arabic script tattoo on his left arm, and one fully grasps his obsession with the form that chose him, when the contours of the tattoo match the ones hung on the walls.

"When was the last time a language was invented?" he asks, pointing out that languages may evolve, but it has probably been long since a new language was created.

"The spiral is like a script for me. I want to develop a language made from them."

"The intricate arrangement of line and spiral and contour, the building blocks of the language of art, are clearly articulated in a number of canvasses," Nair wrote.

Joshi, who dons multiple hats -- that of a fashion designer, filmmaker, photographer, animator -- also revealed that he used to sing.

Connecting the dots, one finds two canvasses with their lines resembling a music script, with golden, spiral notes beautifully painted onto them.

The multimedia exhibition is an example of a rich work of art that the organisation promotes, Allure Art head Nipun Soin said.

The exhibition is open for public viewing till October 31.

--IANS

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