Sreyashi Ghosh and Pratap Kumar at Studio21 on Saturday. (Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya)

She writes poetry, sings and draws in pen and ink, oil and acrylic. So when she wants to express herself, she allows all of it to come together like a tapestry, like the way indigenous peoples express themselves.

Bunan (the weave) at Studio 21 on December 17 was one such presentation by Sreyashi Ghosh, for whom an exhibition is never complete without interactions.

The event, held in collaboration with international peace project Peace Mode 365, saw Sreyashi read from her second book of poems My Soul on a Platter, sing scraps of Rabindrasangeet and talk about her work to the accompaniment of sarod played by Pratap Kumar, a disciple of Ustad Amjad Ali Khan.

The book will be launched on January 16 at Weavers Studio, which will also host an exhibition of her drawings.

Sreyashi, an ex-student of La Martiniere, went to Bangalore to study psychology, English and sociology. Poetry came first, followed by art which she taught herself “like indigenous artists”.

Her first book of poems, A Cynic’s Diary, appeared in 2004. By then she had worked with various NGOs and UN agencies on human rights and violence against women, among other issues.

A stint with the UN in Switzerland, Africa and the USA exposed Sreyashi to a wide range of experiences and her creativity took wing.

If in India she was inspired by the Todas of the Nilgiri hills, in Africa her art was influenced by various local tribes.

Two of the poems she read at the performance were African Sky and African Sunset. She said she was mesmerised by “the richness of colour and sounds and the camaraderie of people”. The monsoon there had evoked in her strains of the Miyan ki Malhar, to which she wrote the two poems.

With Pratap Kumar’s sarod recreating the mood, Sreyashi sang a few lines “Shravana gagane ghor ghanaghata” and read lines from her poems like “The ink blue sky kept shedding jewels/throughout the night/I just wanted to hold the moment tight/At the crack of dawn.”

Words also form a part of her drawings — the word “Pain” is repeated in 26 different ways.

Certain familiar motifs like the Goddess Kali’s kharga (chopper) or hibiscus also get repeated as she contemplates Eros and Thanatos.

Sreyashi’s poems have been translated into French, German and Spanish. She is currently working with patuas in order to weave their idiom into hers.

A creative blog, Peace Mode 365, was launched on the occasion. Film clips, articles, songs... anything can be contributed and shared at the blog.