Resilience

RESILIENCE

CONNOTATIONS EVOKING SENSATIONS

“Resilience is a multidimensional and not a unitary concept. There is no one characteristic or trait identified as resilience. Rather, there are many behaviors and actions associated with resilience.” —Russ Newman

Any form of art, whether it is music, literature, painting or theatre, involves explorations and expression. It is something, which is full of nuances of feelings and subtleties of thoughts. It assists a person in defining parameters of his competencies and proficiencies: physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. The smooth strokes can reflect the mind at ease and the haphazard strokes can make one see the restlessness or agitated state of mind. Whole world has been going through a rough patch. Isolation has been a substitute realm of artists, where creativity remained un-quarantined; charged up with exquisiteness, serenity, quietude, simplicity, awe, spirituality, anxiety, apprehensions, dread of the unknown, considerations and experimentations where the actuality of the world and happenings laid far behind the veil of colours and expressions. Bearing the tough times, personalized expressions opened a doorway to instinct and imagery for the artists, where started a quest in the journey of delving deep into self.

‘Resilience’- is one such exhibition under the banner of Krishna Setty Foundation supported by Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath Bangalore, showcasing the recent and ‘never been displayed before’ works of fifty seven recognized artists of Karnataka, which includes a masterpiece of JMS Mani who the art fraternity lost recently. These artists from numerous cities have been brought together under one roof with the relentless efforts of CS Krishna Setty, who always goes an extra mile for the appreciation and promotion of art and follows the philosophy- “There is no guess work in effort, just work.” In the show, there is an incorporation of forms, visual delineations and cropped spaces which create visible as well as untold scopes in observations. In the individual styles of each artist one can see a weft of colour sensations; dribble and squish of myriad hues across the canvas; merged contours; the liveliness, bounce and easy flow in the forceful strokes and lines flying across in the surface; boldness of geometric forms, spontaneity of figures and also a search of arrangements through the accidental approach. There is a wide assortment of intriguing acrylics, digital and mixed media paintings; brass, stones and fibre glass sculptures; unique lookouts of photography; viscosity, aqua and etchings in printmaking; scroll installation and performance to celebrate the whole Art scenario. Whether it is in a set of small formats or on huge canvases, an effort can be seen to corroborate the resilience, go beyond prevailing and unselfconscious making of an innovative art language with a sensitive transposition of simple forms; calming and unswerving depictions in the wide variations in the pictorial recordings- reminiscences, nostalgia, nature, experiences or ambiences; and even vivid effect of silhouettes and contrasts.

There are multiple layers of effects adding more meaning to the observation by drifting on the path of conceptual and intangible. The works reverberate with emotional interactions, with graceful distortions where some approaches are realistic, some views are abstract, and some strokes tend to become an array of multiple textures without any particular form. It depends on the spectator how he responds to these works by getting ‘into’ the thing and entering the field of his emotions and imagination. One can sum up by saying that the processes of crumbling have their own aesthetic captivation. Like Shane Koyczan said, “If your heart is broken, make art with the pieces.” The artists have realized, lived and revealed great propensity for articulating the ecstatic feelings in more than one way. The images might be inevitably ambiguous but definitely not meaningless.

Alka Chadha Harpalani

Artist/Writer, Bangalore