Resting on a cloud: In a new art show artists explore the themes of isolation and solitude

Privacy by Jayeeta Chatterjee

We know that respite is momentary, not only by definition but also by experience. Yet its offering is tangible, as sure and fleeting as a cloud. In Ask the Clouds to Remember, respite and relief lie in the act of expressing a feeling or state. Curated by Shreemoyee Moitra, the art show features four artists whose diverse visual vocabularies are tied with an overlapping theme, which Moitra explains is the search for sheltered space and the desire to visualise something anew and seek an escape from entangled emotions.

Artist Anirban Mishra in his cityscapes speaks of solitude and alienation. It also serves as a strong recall of the two years of the pandemic. Artist Puja Mondal paints a tapestry of personal memories revisiting her alma mater as a space that witnessed trying times but was also an oasis of calm. "My works act as a metaphor and remembrance that keep the record of our times and its crimes," says Mondal.

Shreemoyee Moitra

Each artwork moves from expressing our ever-evolving relationship with isolation, seeking a haven to highlighting the emotional weight everyday objects hold, and finally finding calm. In Samindranath Majumdar's 69 x 69-inch painting titled It Always Happens To Other People, subdued colours quieten the eerie landscape that the abstract contours can depict. The piece comments on modern-day war culture, the act of other-ing communities, and how the immediate effect of devastation is lost as it ebbs outward; the latter is portrayed through a grid made with rope on the painting, indicating a fence where one side looks through to the other.

Closer to home are Jayeeta Chatterjee's woodcut prints, which depict the dreams, conflicts, burdens and moments of rest of the women in her prints. Chatterjee shares that her works contemplate the relationship between sites and states of existence of a homemaker's space that bear their dreams and desires. If anyone has sighed upward into the sky, they have - as Moitra has titled the show - asked the clouds to remember for them, so they can understand better or take a breather from trying to. Here, the cloud is the metaphoric canvas, and relief comes from transferring a burden, and communication through silence. It does not matter who holds the brush; both artist and viewer find respite.

On: Preview on June 23; 6 pm onwards
Till: July 21; 11 am to 6.30 pm
At: Akara Art, Mereweather Road, Colaba.
Log on to: @akaraart