BLENDING BOUNDARIES INDIA-SRI LANKA, 2021

‘Blending boundaries’ is the second edition of Indo - Sri Lanka Cultural Exchange Art Exhibitions which will represent eleven artists at the Lionel Wendt Art Gallery in Sri Lanka and is being previewed at Studio Ficus in Baroda. What links these eleven artists? At their commonalities and dissimilarities, it is the city of Baroda. What are these artists presenting? Artists attempted to blend the geographical as well as cultural, emotional, physical and psychic boundaries through multi layered artworks. Some of the works are discursive, some initiate conversations, a few are forced to introspect while some invite an active participation on the issues ranging from elementary observations travelling through existential quests and pondering over metaphysics and anthropocene.What do we read or relish in these artworks? All the eleven artists, coming from varied socio-cultural backgrounds, have undertaken academic training that has provided a strong mantle to their artistic expression, manipulated witfully by each to pronounce ethos and sentiments. The often encountered ‘strangeness’ in cultural affiliations versus complexities and fleeting emotions finds a soft echo under the surface of these stimulating artworks, ringing in sync with varied materials and techniques. 

Reading of all the concept notes prepared by the artists, some of which are meticulous, some cursory and some concise, provide us with certain ‘words’ which gives us a peep into their absolutely normal-abnormal, simple-complex, compulsive-impulsive, languid-hurried states of beings.     

Blending Boundaries, an art exhibition by Indian and Sri Lankan artists will be open to the public from 9am-8pm at the Lionel Wendt Art Gallery on the 26th and 27th, March

     
I picked up words from all the eleven artists’ concept notes, these are not just words reverberating with the artworks, they are a dormant awakening, a consciousness, a poem, a novel, a love letter, a night full of romance, an evening spent in silent crying, a heart aching for not-yet-found-but-already-lost-love, a longing for never-visited-vistas, and expression of all which is beyond these words!

People. Self. Personal. Impersonal. Urge. Memories. Sensibilities. Curious. Dreams. Fantasy. Mystery. Bizarreness. Motherhood. Laugh. Tears. Pain. Age. Fragility. Silence. Evoke. Sensitive. Love. Lust. Loyalty. Intuition. Childhood. Possibilities. Opposite Sex. Dehumanizing.  

Absence of communication. Experiment. Metaphor. Impulse. Societal whirlpool of aspirations. Strange encounters. Love for nonsense. Stereotype. Iconic. Detachment.  Mise-en-scenes. Playfulness. Interpretations. Enticing predicament. Puzzle. Glimpse. Unconscious. Fundamental. Truth. Identity. Self-referential. Drama. Dialogue. React. Physical nudity. Perceptible.
Garden. Organism. Environmental issues. Air. Water. Natural beauty. Transformation. Society. Fragments. Animal kingdom. Universe. Spacecraft. Red seeds. Rootless. Population. Global perception. Anthropocene. Cosmopolitan. Eco-friendly.             

Metaphysics. Background. Space. Suburban humour. Self centeredness. Creativity. Conundrums. Upper middle class. Personal narratives. Consumer culture. Mundane life. Surrealism. Symbolism. Urban folktales. Incised lines. Secret collection. Abstract. Culture. Religion. Schizophrenia. Many realities.

-Sonika Soni