Paintings by Sajal Sasanka Sarcar
Poetic Reality
Sajal Sasanka Sarcar lives and works in Baroda, qualified from Print making Dept. of Baroda Fine Arts Faculty. He has re-organized, while adding layers of fine paper pulp to print making process and explored technique to suit his work. Print making technique wore a fresh costume. His studio is filled with tins and jars storing the dry, wet paper pulp, and some lumps are in the process of drying under the Sun and few more thin wet, colored pulp layers are on the sieves ready to undergo the process of composing the canvasses. He uses vinyl eco-friendly industrial colors, sometimes acrylic colors and yet another times tea and coffee stains, iron and rust stains. To develop the methods and medium to go well with one’s own contemporary requirements on such traditional techniques is a meditative act, paying homage to traditional art practices. Use of traditional methods in modern practices was very rare till the decade back and recent change in contemporary art is exploring the meanings in medium of natural dyes and traditional techniques and methods. Exploring new methods to the required results is adding another feather in the artists’ works like Sajal’s and a viewing feast for the viewer.
What is pleasant in his work that persuade the viewer is, poetic elements giving a thrust to the visual imaginations, themes reflecting on changing society, living styles, illustrious personalities, History incidents. Many such elements mix on visual senses within the pleasing idioms. His father -in -laws’ poetry painted visual imagination by him has interesting canvases leaving a feeling of book fold. He takes pleasure in poetry essence and their universal meanings to display his visual expressions.
Sajal syas Krishnokali composition is about rural Bengal girl on cow-herds’ watch over, has dark eyes and dark complexion, dark hair suits her name. Hungry Bengal composition display a tiger’s upside down position symbolizing the ecological imbalance as well imbalance of the social peace and coexistence. The golden Bengal of previous days was, beautiful. It was like beautiful Krishnokali. Probably symbolizing female and a landscape sensibility is like a sensibility of Tagore’s poetry and Nadlal’s imagery for Sajal. He feels it’s a blurred picture of that Sonar Bangla at present. What the culture of previous days was unique to Bengal there is a change in the present times with changed and multicultural practices. He feels this is Hungry Bengal devoid of peace.
His other compositions are on social problems and individual’s identity struggles. Beautiful girls like ‘Bondana’ are thrown for trade symbolized with barcode, two beautiful girls composition narrate the story of human being with dual sexuality desires, Fatemah’s photo album explains the suppression of desires.
PL 480 is a composition on social problem of red wheat import of then times from America and Lal Bahadur Sastry’s move on green revolution is a narration of history, a story of reality. This composition speaks about the success story of Lalbahadur Sastry than the humiliation faced by Indian society, receiving red wheat which was equal to animal feed in America. Sastryji looks like Gandhi in his composition with folded hands. Probably the idea of Satyagraha of resistance popularly symbolizes Gandhi.
Cinema posters were taken on litho prints previously and at present it is taken over by digital prints. He made a composition on 100 years of cinema celebration compiling many heroes of cinema entertainment and Amitabh Bachhan mega star as a central figure who has taken over the minds and viewership. Many hero characters like Rajkapoor or Rajnikanth of Indian cinema are placed at the periphery. Effect of costumes of military uniforms to pink colored goggles of a young girl to earthy browns or whites every color has that pleasant natural touch in his treatment on compositions. His composition on 100 years of cinema reveals many symbolic meanings specific to his style of working and concepts. Amitabh’a picture is taken from that poster of his hit movie, ‘Coolie’. The urban labour class is well represented in that character role of that movie, and Amitabh fulfilled the role to make it a big success. Metro cities working class are the big patrons of cinema and success stories of 100 years. His posture has portrayed more than the entertainment of movie, but as a male icon of the period.
Sajal’s work is like candid photography caught people, incidents, life on natural moments depicting like an observant of body language. His attention catches the day to day life, activities and down to earth requirements of common people’s life, problems, entertainments, changing society and existential problems. Technique of paper pulp is adding more meanings to his compositions.
He signs his canvasses with a stamp printing his name the typical way Chinese paintings and Durer’s prints are stamped. Sometime back letters written were effective communication amongst people living at distances. They carried such stamping. It could be a memory of that practice too which carried forward the relations and emotions. He feels being living in Gujarat he should write his signature the way Gujarati’s mention and added Sasanka to his signature later.