Borderline, an exhibition of Ashim Purakayastha’s works at Ananta Gallery, was a mix of sculpture, painting, photograph and installation. In an attempt to seek an escape route from the 20th century formulae art, the artist chose refugees as his theme. Since their arrival from the erstwhile East Pakistan to Assam after Partition, not only their language and culture but their very existence has been at stake. While sometimes Purakayastha uses blown up photographs to assert the inherent drama of an event, at other times he focuses on stacks of sandbags or heavily armed robots with an imposing presence. One however can’t help but note the element of political propaganda in the artist’s works.
Sandip Sarkar

Unusual palette

Guneeta and Rajesh Chadha, a painter couple from Chandigarh, displayed their works for the first time in Calcutta at Birla Academy. Entitled Pixel Perfect, the exhibition showcased a body of work that had an unusual flavour about it. Guneeta’s paintings, especially the range of figurative works, rank far behind her own black and white creations, which are mature and well executed. Rajesh, on the other hand, is a self-taught artist who uses the computer and digital printing as his medium. In quite a few of his works, the abstraction of forms and the use of sensitive lines reflect his skilful handling of the medium. But in some of his works he needs to be more constrained in terms of colourful forms. For, evidently, he achieves better results when he uses simplified forms and a limited colour palette.
Suman Choudhury

Rhythmic patterns

The members of Jailal Academy of Music presented an evening of dance and music at G.D. Birla Sabhaghar on December 28 in memory of Pt Ramgopal Misra. The evening commenced with a Kathak recital by Kajal Mishra, daughter of Ramgopal and Susmita Misra. Groomed in Jaipur gharana, Kajal began with Vishnu Vandana followed by famous sloka bhavani dayani. With neat footwork and fast chakkars, the artiste reflected commendable taiyari and a sense of rhythm, though lacking in grace and elegance. The traditional numbers of Kathak repertoire like toda, uthan, amad on teental were well presented. Rhythmic patterns of movements were enjoyable along with Raj Kumar Misra’s able tabla accompaniment.

Sharmila Basu Thakur