Estate-of-the-Art

“The show broadly explores three recurring motifs: the mind architecture,the face and the cows,” says Shrimali. The focal-points in many of his works are faces — flat and lacking spatial depth. These human faces,often busts,have bald heads and lack expression. “The faces symbolise the mind space,containing or foregrounding the thoughts,which is architecture in the form of stairs,floor,walls,windows and doorways,” says Shrimali.

So,while the faces are flat,the rendition of architecture gives spatial perspective to the paintings and creates an illusion of depth. But the beauty of these paintings lies in understanding the very nature of thoughts: they are scattered and torrential. “I have illustrated this nature of thoughts with my labyrinthine chambers of staircases which defy the conventional understanding of spatial perspective,running on different tangents,” says Shrimali.

How do cows fit in this scheme,one might ask. “The cow,according to Hinduism,is the abode of 33 crore deities. Therefore the cow,too,is part of a higher scheme of architecture fit for the deities to reside in and humans to worship,protect and conserve,” says Shrimali. There are paintings in which three cows stand one atop the other,“representing the realms of heaven,earth and hell with a common centre of gravity,acting as dwellings for deities from the respective realms,” explains Shrimali.

All these ideas have been rendered with a monochromatic colour scheme on archival paper. The paintings bear earthy,often muddy shades; quite naturally,for Shrimali uses earthy colours made from handpicked stones. “I soak the stones in water for over two weeks and leave them out to dry. I then convert them to powder,which is used as paint,” says Shrimali adding,“These paints don’t smudge and are better than chemical paints in terms of longevity and consistency.”

The exhibition is on till August 6 at Darpan Art Gallery