Important Notice

Lot 83

Arpita Singh`s work is frequently inspired by the private lives of women, particularly her own and those of her close family and friends, and the external events that have an effect on them. Like these lives, her dense, multilayered canvases defy any single interpretation. The collection of familiar objects and people on her canvases, painted in strong colours and arranged in specific patterns is reminiscent of decorative Kantha embroidery, a... Arpita Singh`s work is frequently inspired by the private lives of women, particularly her own and those of her close family and friends, and the external events that have an effect on them. Like these lives, her dense, multilayered canvases defy any single interpretation. The collection of familiar objects and people on her canvases, painted in strong colours and arranged in specific patterns is reminiscent of decorative Kantha embroidery, a style Singh became familiar with during her stint as a textile designer at the Weavers` Service Centers in Calcutta and New Delhi.

Unsurprisingly, Singh`s creative process is inspired by a great amalgam of sources. As she explains, in the context of the present lot, “A painting has so many things going into its making, the things I paint, what I painted in my last painting and the next. While I have been painting `Stop ringing the Bell`…a Bengali folk story I knew in my childhood keeps coming back to me, about the mountain of bones which the Prince encounters when he is sent out by his wicked step-mother to perform penance. Since last year the genocide in Gujarat has never been far from one`s mind…But eventually the painting might be about something else” (As told to Nilima Sheikh, “Of target-flowers, spinal cords, and (un)veilings” in Memory Jars: New Paintings and Watercolors, Bose Pacia Modern Exhibition Catalogue, 2003, unpaginated).

In this 2003 piece, violence is a central theme, both as a result of the Gujarat massacres of 2002 that the artist mentions, and of her own ageing process. The multiple depictions of the ageing protagonist, with her bent over form and exposed spine, speak of a lifetime of fulfilling internally and externally assigned feminine roles, from mother and wife to goddess and whore. Whilst the line of bones on the surface perhaps alludes to the loss of life during the religious riots, it might also be symbolic of a body that has failed its owner. Coming to terms with mortality by examining her own, Singh preserves the memories and other fragments of the protagonist in the little jars that are scattered all over the canvas.

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