Sohini Dhar

LAND-SKYPE by Sohini Dhar

“Land-Skype" is a conjoined term that connects the past to the present. The Land itself is synonymous with man's earliest existence, while "Skype" is the most contemporary term from the digital world. Combined, they create new imagery, a new dialogue of " Visual Voyage".

Any work of art, down to the earliest remnants of civilization, is a byproduct of an artist's immediate surroundings and the negotiation of its socio-ecological factors. Therefore, it evolves with the artist's upbringing.

My present series of works emerges from my long association with Indian miniatures. In today's world of materialistic abundance, miniatures or anything minute in size and rendition are often overlooked or ignored as insignificant. However, in the technological field, nanotechnology is gaining greater importance daily.

The present series, entitled" The Visual Voyage," tries to map the routes of imagination through the index of nature, natural habitats, and its varied ecological challenges. None of the works conform to any specific locale or attempt to qualify as geographical realities. They are all expressions of nature perceived, sieved, and transmitted through layers of visual understanding.

The botanical world has been my creative inspiration since childhood when I was raised and studied in the pristine surroundings of Rabindranath Tagore's Santiniketan…" meaning the “Abode of Peace" in West Bengal, India. The changing seasons, the warm and luxuriant colours of flowers and foliage, the rumbling monsoon clouds, the crownlike raindrops, and undulating laterite lands all got imprinted within me. Interestingly, my mother also happened to be a student of Botany during her academic days and her beautiful botanical drawings during her studies also nurtured my layers of perception, which is how my land-spaces have emerged. They do not highlight the objective, quasi-realistic panoramic views but try to express my innermost understanding of nature, its rapid exploitation and worldwide ecological degradation.