When Women Celebrate Art

HYDERABAD: The exhibition of drawings, paintings and sculptures titled This Moment and Beyond, curated by Koeli Mukherjee Ghose was conceived with a feeling of mixed emotions pertaining to women. The sense of anticipation yet uncertainty supports the curatorial agenda to put forth a selection of 24 artists at the Ailamma Art Gallery.With a mixed ratio of male and female artists, the show opened to the public on March 8. A Chaya, B Krishna Gowd, Bheeshma Chari, G Subba Rao, Isha Joice, Konduru Nageswara Rao, Laxmi Suhasini, Mou Bagchi, M Subhash, Mukthavaram Vasantha, Piu Mahapatra, Prof R C Sharma, Priti Samyuktha, Ramu Naidu, Sandhya Kiran Chiluvuri, Seema Ghia, Sita Sudhakar, Sriteja Kotagiri, S Sridevi, T Kavitha, Tailor Srinivas, Tanuja Munakala, Uma Makala and Uma Tirumalasetti are participating in this exhibition of solidarity and support for women.

Almost, all the works on display reveal the status of the female gender: some celebrating, a few expressing the burden of life and some are positioned in a matter of fact stance. For instance, a couple of paintings by artist Tailor Srinivas portray the union of nature and human existence. When the artist illustrates the elements of trees on the woman’s clothes and a stretch of fields on the top right corner of the canvas a feeling of calm evades from his painting.

The second painting follows a similar thought process – the decorated woman amidst nature is a recall of two masters in a stylised fashion: The symbolism and compositions of Raja Ravi Varma and the design of artist T Vaikuntam makes a unique format of this work. Although, it is clearly Tailor Srinivas’ line of work, the integration of the two masters makes this work special.

While most of the works in this exhibition apply heavy usage of symbolism the work which catches the eye is with the female sitting amongst a matrix of a dried tree with her head bent upon her knees and hands across her legs, gathering and ruminating about herself, the top and left portion of the canvas projects a brain with the mold of a butterfly, soaring upwards toward the golden light emanating from the left side of the canvas. Although the work projects a feeling of a dismal condition, at the same time it transmits libration of the mind, of ideas which can fly.  

Overall, the exhibition has a wonderful curatorial note that is shared in a poetic format. “It is this moment and beyond, when life and death turns a deaf ear, you hold your breath in joy and in fear when you know what is far ahead and you cannot fathom what is near. That you pause in the middle of churning within to take a deep breath and inhale the joys and sorrows of four seasons…”The exhibition is on till March 25