Exhibitions, India, New Delhi, 18 October 2011
‘scriptural Enchantment’ is a solo exhibition of paintings by young and promising artist Jagmohan Bangani based in New Delhi. The artist is basically from Uttrakhand and has moved to Delhi to make his career as an artist. The show has been titled scriptural Enchantment as it takes one to the world of scriptures that has been written aesthetically by the artist. Bangani has a unique approach of making texts as the content of his paintings by repeating them in a rhythmic pattern that renders them an alluring appeal which has the ability to enchant or captivate. The text used in these paintings could be religious scriptures, mantras, song, an adage and quote or it could be templates used in everyday life.
The artist has started his artistic journey with figurative art and holds a notable command over his drawings. Due to his quest and affinity for texts and calligraphic writings, Bangani has chosen this medium to express his artistic expression. Working as an illustrator by making posters and sign boards to support himself in his initial days, he had a long association of playing with words and texts. Bangani did his masters from Winchester School of Art, U.K. It was during his stay in UK that he reinvented this veiled skill and has rephrased it into a fresh symphony. Initially during his residing period in UK he used the textual matter from Sanskrit shlokas and mantras from the rich cultural traditions of Indian subcontinent, which was also a kind of recalling and looking at one’s own cultural roots and ethos. In some of his works Bangani has actually used mantras and shlokas in Sanskrit, Gurumukhi and have chanted them on his canvas with his paint and brush. Apart from this the artist has used texts from other languages like English, Hindi and Punjabi. There could be texts from many more languages in future in his creative pursuit.
Bangani use to drip colours from his texts which goes down till the bottom of the canvas that makes it very unique. Unlike the American abstract painter Jackson Pollock’s drip paintings for which he was popular, Bangani’s dripping technique is very patterned and lyrical and appears to be quite different. Here, the drippings also give an implication that the text/word has a sense of freedom and it has vital say. These works have a subtle approach to communicate to the viewers not only the rich culture and tradition but also the problems and orthodox customs of a society. It could be artist’s noble effort by using one liner proverb or quote which always demands from viewer to visualize the whole context of that writing, why it has written, how they should respond and what amelioration they should bring in their life.
The show has been curated by young art critic and curator Pranamita Borgohain, an alumnus of the school of Arts & Aesthetics, JNU, New Delhi. She has been curating shows and conducting workshops for young contemporary artists and has been writing for various art magazines on Contemporary Art for the last four years. Both these young creative beings have come up with this inventive project ‘scriptural Enchantment’ that presents a journey of the artist’s long running affair with the textual forms and shapes which he presents ingeniously through his paintings.
The artist has started his artistic journey with figurative art and holds a notable command over his drawings. Due to his quest and affinity for texts and calligraphic writings, Bangani has chosen this medium to express his artistic expression. Working as an illustrator by making posters and sign boards to support himself in his initial days, he had a long association of playing with words and texts. Bangani did his masters from Winchester School of Art, U.K. It was during his stay in UK that he reinvented this veiled skill and has rephrased it into a fresh symphony. Initially during his residing period in UK he used the textual matter from Sanskrit shlokas and mantras from the rich cultural traditions of Indian subcontinent, which was also a kind of recalling and looking at one’s own cultural roots and ethos. In some of his works Bangani has actually used mantras and shlokas in Sanskrit, Gurumukhi and have chanted them on his canvas with his paint and brush. Apart from this the artist has used texts from other languages like English, Hindi and Punjabi. There could be texts from many more languages in future in his creative pursuit.
Bangani use to drip colours from his texts which goes down till the bottom of the canvas that makes it very unique. Unlike the American abstract painter Jackson Pollock’s drip paintings for which he was popular, Bangani’s dripping technique is very patterned and lyrical and appears to be quite different. Here, the drippings also give an implication that the text/word has a sense of freedom and it has vital say. These works have a subtle approach to communicate to the viewers not only the rich culture and tradition but also the problems and orthodox customs of a society. It could be artist’s noble effort by using one liner proverb or quote which always demands from viewer to visualize the whole context of that writing, why it has written, how they should respond and what amelioration they should bring in their life.
The show has been curated by young art critic and curator Pranamita Borgohain, an alumnus of the school of Arts & Aesthetics, JNU, New Delhi. She has been curating shows and conducting workshops for young contemporary artists and has been writing for various art magazines on Contemporary Art for the last four years. Both these young creative beings have come up with this inventive project ‘sc
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