Zerosphere’s second group exhibition of paintings, showcased at the Academy of Fine Arts, revolves around three witches’ (Macbeth) prophetic words: ?Fair is foul, and foul is fair?. Those dichotomous words described the eras that had preceded the Bard of Avon as much as they speak of our own times across the world. If unbridled desire tends ultimately to swamp humankind with the disastrous epidemic of mental depression and existential angst, the striving for gains and achievements, too, dies hard. Seers over the millennia have warned humanity against the curse of endless desire, while prophets have appeared again and again with messages of sanity and serenity. Zerosphere doesn’t claim to have done anything more than repackage the eternal malaise of the individual in contemporary idiom. But the six artists of the group have done enough to keep the gleam of hope alive amidst darkness.
Samir Dasgupta
Given the limitations of accommodating all the students of an institution in its annual programme, Odissi dancer Sutapa Talukdar maintained a fine balance throughout the presentation ‘Nrityamela’ staged by the Gurukul Academy (Rabindra Sadan, May 2). It began with the dance Nataraja anandatandava which symbolised the cosmic cycle of creation and destruction. Ramkrishna and Debamitra did justice to the choreography aptly done by Sutapa. It was followed by pallavi, a pure dance number based on raga Singhendra. Intricate movements along with exquisite vocal support by Partho Deshikan and inspiring pakhawaj by Banamali Maharana brought out the true spirit of this beautiful number of the Odissi repertoire.
Sharmila Basu Thakur
Chemould Art Gallery recently held the fourth solo exhibition of paintings by Subhendu Das. Dominated by landscapic depictions of tranquillity, solitude and beauty, the artist has sometimes strayed into areas inhabited by toiling humans, and flora (including still-lives of flowers in a vase). His medium is water colour, rendered in an unpretentious, conventional manner. His thematic repertoire, too, is less than exciting. The best works on view included Premonition and Boundless, evoking a kind of old-world poetic sensibilities against the ambience of cobalt and cerulean blue. The artist would do well to restrict himself to cool colours, avoiding complex figural delineations.
SDG
