Art Exhibition of Anindita Chakraborty and Rachana Badrakia at Kalakriti Art Gallery, Hyderabad

Our mind is like a stage, each of us has this stage. Unlike other stage, this stage is very private where play of experiences happen, that is why nobody can peep in others experience. It has a singular solitary kind of witness that is you, this witness is like windowless, and it is much closed kind of thing. It is in this spectacle that the world is disclosed to us through our perception and through our imagination. All creativeness and feelings discloses in this enclosure. The question is under what condition there will be plural witnesses? Work of art is the condition where there is more than one spectator. As the title suggests 'See through me' is nothing but, seeing through the canvas. It is possible because of the visual elements; work of art is plural, where artist makes private experience, public here are the two artists Anindita Chakraborty and Rachana Badrakia. Both use very distinct method to express their thoughts, former uses self as a subject and the later with formal elements.

Anindita’s works depict self-reflection and is an important element that stands out in her creations. This reflection moves beyond physical appearance and goes deeper into the imagination of the artist. Her works also gives a sense of the fantasy world. But on a closer look, her fantasy world creations give a deeper meaning of reality. She also enhances and exaggerates elements in her paintings to give the audience a feeling of shock & surprise. Most of her works are very subjective in nature where she portrays herself as the subject and plays the protagonist of her stories. But this subjectivity gives us a sense of universal emotions. The subject has transpersonal emotions. This is the main reason why the audience end up seeing themselves in her paintings. Anindita has a delightful talent of rendering her subjects very skilfully. One can see a lot of influences from European artists in her artworks.

Rachana Badrakia tries to amalgamate different techniques and media to create an artwork. Her creations are very formal, non-representational. She uses a formal language to express herself, where shapes, lines and subtle colours play a very important role to convey a deep meaning. She coveys her subject very beautifully, albeit in an indirect manner, making the audience think and getting them involved in the artwork. She skilfully uses layer upon layer, primarily to give visual depth. Her works have a very strong sense of tonal variations which causes an immersion experience for the audience. The usage of subtle colours also accentuates the whole experience. Rachana went through a personal tragedy very recently. Her grandmother, whom she was very close with, passed away. Rachana has dedicated her creations in the residency to her late grandmother’s memory.