Because its always good to let people know what exactly you thought originally while they make their own interpretations of your Abstract (Art)!
You now what’s a mesh- it’s a chilman – a wall with checkered patterns giving you every glimpse
of the other side of the wall but yet, closed! In Indian architectural history especially
in Mughal era, the chilman has been used in profound! Take The Taj Mahal of
Agra, all its beautifully marbled terraces surplusly surrounded by chilmaned
railings. Go to Jaipur’s Maharaja Palace, the guide will show you a room – the common Darbar-e-aam where the king used to sit
and hear the public and just besides the king’s hot seat you will find a
chilman – opposite which the queen sat – from where she could see and hear
everything what the pupil had to say and give her opinion to her husband, BUT
the public couldn’t see her clearly and could only understand her presence via
her reflection from her shadow filtered via that chilman!
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| Closer view: The MESH- Chilman |
So that’s what a mesh is! A wall, mind you, it’s a WALL
giving the pretense to be a window
but a WALL, though with a difference by design and logic. I really think they
had this great reason behind innovating such a beautiful pattern – the reason
to be able to see everything from within and yet be hidden and away from everything.
(I wonder if Film coated car window glasses were inspired from them too)
In any picture, a photograph or a painting, there are two
things – basic- the object and the subject. In layman language, the subject is the
living person and the objects are the materialistic things taken in use of to
support the eventual meaning of that picture.
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| Closer view: Subject & Objects |
Here the objects are simple yet lovable (read addictive) items – the wine bottle, the coffee mug, an
earthen ashtray with a few fumes of the still dying smoke inside it and a few
flickering yet steady candles. And the subject, well the person finds it easier
to hide behind the big fat belly of the wine bottle!
From all the detailed description above ( which I didn't really plan to), I will sum up my own comprehension of this piece in a single line- Somebody inside a maze with everything he loves around him but yet can only enjoy a view of the outside and is trapped!
But traps aren’t always a negative word; some traps are by
choice too! Do you remember any of those film stories where the mafia loses all
his men and is terrified for his death and seeks shelter in a prison so that at
least his life could be spared! Same!
Life is anyway a trap, a BIG BIG trap, but we all live
inside it, enjoying the beautiful picture outside it via our chilmans of dreams
and fascination! And off course surround ourselves with everything we love, to
be able to survive till the day when the door opens and we walk out of it….!!
PS- I did not have any clue or intent as to what I will make
when I started painting this one! But the bottle came on paper, then the mug,
then the candles (they are actually books, though they don’t look like), the
person’s half hidden face and then the rest! But it’s always interesting to add
up all your scribbles to make a complete composition!
Technical PS- I used 7 different brush strokes in this
picture!
