When there is a method to one’s madness, the end result can be quite sensible. But when one injects madness into method, as Anandajit Ray — from M.S. University — does in his recent online exhibition, Miasmatica, at the Vadehra Art Gallery , the result can be intriguing to the extent of befuddling the viewer, definitely at first viewing. If one tries to parse Ray’s images it can lead to a wild goose chase. His paintings are like mirages. One is convinced that one has detected a recognizable element in it. Yet, when one tries to identify it, it turns out to be an illusion. One realizes that either one’s eyes have played tricks with oneself, or perhaps Ray has.

But his paintings are all highly finished. Nothing quirky or eccentric about them, contrary to the perplexing and what can loosely be described as a hallucinatory effect that they have on viewers. The format he works in — miniature — could not have been more traditional. His chosen media — watercolour and gouache — and colours — bright or warm grays — are not beyond expectation either. When one zooms in on the works, one is momentarily led to believe one has discovered recognizable details — elements from comic strips, sci-fi, Dali, Bond films, antique apparatus for exploring natural science, scientific drawings of the 18th and 19th century kind and quite inevitably for a Bengali that the artist is: Sukumar Ray. But, now it’s here, the next moment it is not. Perhaps the artist is cocking a snook at the gobbledygook of Indian academic art writing and the antediluvian conventions of art teaching that prevail in most institutions.

The title of the exhibition, ‘Miasmatica’ — faux Latin — is an obvious play on words. And what else are the titles of the works such as, Exercise in Brush Behaviour and Pseudo Pathogen, or the loquacious, Feeble attempts to emulate a moment of designer happiness, but tongue-in-cheek? What Anandajit Ray throws up are beastly beatitudes that all viewers may not be able to stomach. He proves yet again that appearances can be deceptive.