Cycle of life and decay
There is something refreshing about Sarika Mehra’s show, Born from the Terrain at Latitude 28. The works and their presentation are unpretentious and uncomplicated. Most of the paintings are made with gouache or oil on canvas, and are simple in terms of composition and colour arrangement. The imaginative and narrative images are set within almost monochromatic landscapes.
One work that stands out in the show is of ants leaving an anthill that rises up within the skeleton of a wooden cot or manji or khatia as it is called in north India, and move towards an intact, unbroken new cot, woven with shiny, colourful new strings. This entire narrative of abandoning the old and moving on towards newer ideas and environment is set within a bleak landscape, that is almost desert-like in its absence of all life forms except for the ants. Even sunlight seems to have forsaken this space.
Desolate and lifeless landscapes often appear in Sarika’s work, inhabited only by either rootless plants/poles or by vegetation that has been ruthlessly uprooted and thrown away, withered and wasted. They seem to be an allegory on the lack of organic life structures and relationships that have come to characterise post modern urbanisation in the digital age. The subtle colouring and play of delicate light is seen more in the gouache works than in canvas, which seem more alive and pulsating with natural forms.
According to the artist, “our generation is characterized by living patterns of noise, din and clutter. I intend to understand and decipher these patterns”. There is an attempt to connect with the universal core of emotions and experiences that lies in all humans through the works, which lies beyond verbal and logical structures and may be retrieved through imagery and visualisation.
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