A Heady Tale

“We constanlty hear so many things, much of which is irrelevant and should be shut out. Worms coming out of ears – that’s my way of showing the head is pushing the noise out,” says Bhowmick.

After an “inner churning of emotions,” that happens when he observes the world around him, is what spurns the Faridabad-based artist to draw heads, which he feels are the true mirrors of our souls. “That slight twist of the eyebrows, that cunning smile, the pale look, happy faces hiding everything, old and tampered faces, curved, chiselled, painted, pampered, cannibalistic, injured, glorified and drowned in pain,” these are things Bhowmick wants to bring out.

There are no outlines and no preliminary sketches for Soumen Bhowmick, who started his career making illustrations for children. He talks about how a lot of contemporary artists draw landscapes or portraits of Krishna or Buddha. “This is all very pleasing, but an artist should question society,” he says. His emotive faces, often without skin, show the skeletal structures of a human figure in a rather graphic form. The intention, he says, “is to represent the true nature of society, without the outer form.” But not all of it is dark. In Lost Friend, a face looks up to a passing butterfly, which is symbolic of the dreams we chase. His other canvases show tiny ladders, and golden Lilliputian daggers, and cycle wheels. While the wheels convey a sense of movement, the ladders, says the artist, represent the goals we constantly reset. “There’s always one step, after the step you are on,” he says.

Unsettling though his images maybe, Bhowmick’s colour scheme is a study in contrasts, uplifting and bright. It’s safe to say that there was never a better example for poet-activist-educator Cesar A Cruz’s remarkable words, “Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.”

The exhibition is on display at Triveni Gallery, Triveni Kala Sangam, Tansen Marg, Mandi House, till March 25. Contact 23718833