It’s all in your head!
Is the brain an organism by itself, with an independent agency, with a macrobiotic origination, are some of the questions that emerge from the recent show Let the Brainfly at Laltitude 28, consisting of videos and mixed media paintings by Nandita Kumar. Most of the works repeat the image of a brain with twisted, coiled and convoluted mass and extensions, sometimes with legs of a fly or with some added organic elements.
The artist is exploring patterns in what she knows best: her own mind. From here, cogent expression takes root in a visual form; given that enduring memory, especially in the early stages of evolution, is visual memory. Abstract concepts and thought, including language and texts, develop later. The image therefore becomes a key factor in imagining.
By going into the anatomy and the physiology of the body, she excludes the entire the question of the body-image, with its concerns with appearance and apparel. By exploring and displaying the minutiae of the constituent elements, the brain, eyes, tissues, veins, blood vessels, she privileges their role in individual and collective activity. The body is broken down, abstracted and interpreted to explore emotional, ecological, technological or spiritual concepts.
Though dealing with small and exposed body parts, the paintings do have a non-linear narrative structure both in terms of display and in individual works. The Birth of a Brainfly series look at the moment when consciousness emerges, the constructs that sentience plays with and the moment when the brain becomes independent and dominant over the constituent anatomical structures.
Similarly in the work I see Trees Everywhere, the artist uses the skeleton tissues and blood vessels to emphasise the fundamental and constituent structures in the universe. Eyeball as the conveyor of messages to the brain, the conduit of memory, of physical, social and cultural images literally pop up all over the canvases, eerily separated from the rest of the optical structure.
Nandita Kumar’s works show a lot of conceptual and creative effort. The use of digital imagery and glazes on the canvas and the walls exhibits considerable designer skills. However, the artist will have to eventually decide in which direction she utilises this skill and effort — to merely experiment with forms or to actually create works that communicate effectively with the viewers.
— The writer is an art historian, curator and critic
Post new comment