The city is her canvas

“There is degradation of values and fragmentation which divides mankind,” says the artist,looking at the set of work that comprises the exhibition titled ‘Counter Gaze’ at Alliance Francaise in Delhi. Featuring 13 canvases,this reflects on the notion of urban spaces as aspirational and depicts how an individual feels stressed due to the daily chores.

The inspiration comes from her own surroundings. “What I paint is an outcome of what I see. The rapid deterioration is leading to a lot of despair but I like to paint people with hope. I’m concerned about where we are heading,but I am optimistic,” says the commerce graduate from Shri Ram College of Commerce.

Student of Rameshwar Broota,like her teacher,Chandra too likes to work on a broad canvas. “It allows for a larger base. The impact too is huge,” smiles the artist,who received the national award for her work in 2005 by the Lalit Kala Akademi.

While most of her earlier work centered on individuals living in an urban set-up,on this occasion Chandra has painted the surroundings. She uses staircase as a symbol of urban intrusion in the rural landscape that is constantly changing. “It depicts man’s desire to constantly grow and evolve,” she says. If in the acrylic on canvas titled ‘Castles in the Air’,a flight of stairs seems to take the climber into an ideal space where everyone has equal rights,in another diptych,’I Tried to Climb Yesterday’,she depicts the tension and lethargy human beings experience in urban spaces through symbols like a sleeping dog or a hand moves a string.

The dichotomy of an individual living in a teeming metropolis also concerns Chandra. On the wall is the work ‘I See,I Wait,I Believe’,where she uses the human figure as an isolated being within a complex landscape of grids. In another painting,’Yesterday Unravels,Today Engulfs’,she creates a movement in the form of a trapeze net or huge mosquito net tied within a historical architecture that represents the old and sustainable urbanisation projects.

“At times,we make space for the old,in the new,” she says. While she hopes that Delhiites relate with the work on display,she is ready with the theme of her next series. Urbanisation will get another hue.