The title of Mr Ajay Lakhera’s exhibition That’s Why We Are Here, is as ambiguous as the artworks, and perhaps intentionally so, because as the artist says, “There is always an other side to everything, that which we cannot see.” His intention was to show this other side. The first thing that draws your attention towards his paintings is the use of bright red, sometimes foiled by earthy tones and sometimes using a distinct camouflaging technique.
The influences, according to Mr Lakhera, come from the basic instincts of human behaviour, which are always earmarked by dualism.
“Take violence for instance. It’s part of every culture in every society and is only seen in a negative light. But for a person who’s involved in a war, violence seems the right thing to do, and we are in no position to judge him, because we know only one side of the story,” says Mr Lakhera. But the artist clarifies that he is not endorsing negativity in his paintings. “In fact I’m not taking any stand, because positivity and negativity are relative virtues. I’m only trying to show that we are living in a world of parallel truths. That’s the law of nature. We cannot contest it nor can we criticise it,” he says.
Mr Lakhera believes that viewers’ interpretation of his paintings depends on their mindset at that given point of time. According to him the painting where a person is shown to be placing a stool can be read in two ways. “Depending on how you’re feeling at that moment, you can see it as somebody either placing a stool for you or removing it just when you’re about to sit down. One action represents help while the other, malice. It all depends on how you view your world,” he explains.
One of the most striking paintings in the collection, currently displayed at The Strand Art Room in Colaba, is the one where the shoelaces are tied to each other. It’s the awkward helplessness of the captured moment that plays with the viewer’s mind. “There’s duality here too. Most of us have played this prank on someone in school, and laughed at someone else’s experience, watching them fall on their knees. There are two kinds of situations that can make one fall on their knees — one being out of love or respect, where you kneel before your beloved or God, and the other is when you’re forced into submission,” says the artist. In most of his paintings Mr Lakhera has used a self-image, which shows him caught in different situations. He has also tried to express the feeling of alienation that humans experience sometime or the other. “The painting where two people are looking away from each other can be seen as one person, who becomes two when you hold a mirror in front of him. It represents all those times when a single moment alienate us from the closest people in our lives, making us feel like we don’t know them at all,” says Mr Lakhera.
A signature aspect of his paintings is the camouflaging technique that renders an impression of moving colours as against a static image. “The camouflage represents our society, within which humans try to hide themselves, not wanting to detach from the crowds.” The use of multiple layers demands at least a month’s time for the completion of a single painting. “I prefer using acrylic, with a heavy water base, where each layer requires 24 hours to dry up. That’s how I get the image of flowing colours,” he says.
The artist calls his paintings figurative abstractions. “While I use a lot of abstract techniques, if you look closely, each of my paintings tells a story about the universal shades of human behavior. And the more you see, the more you discover,” says Mr Lakhera.
The show is on till December 28