Artist Tanisha Bakshi explores the ‘essence of life’ through her artworks

Also present at the showcase were renowned artists Jatin Das, Shridhar Iyer and Vijendra Sharma, Director of India Habitat Centre Sunit Tandon, Director General of the NGMA Adwaita Gadanayak, and art critic and curator Uma Nair, among others.

While works in various media — including oil paintings, charcoal and installations — are on view, talking about her subjects, who are slum dwellers that she met through her NGO Annsagar Foundation, Bakshi says, “Slums are not a place of despair. Its inhabitants are all working towards a better life. They lead unimaginable lives and struggle to earn one meal a day. But this extremity is overshadowed by a bond of love that holds them together. These people share a genuine, unshakable sense of community or what I would like to term the bond of hearts. This made me realise that the reality of these slums is not only beautiful but also full of life.”

Tanisha Bakshi’s work ‘No Future’ (Source: Tanisha Bakshi)

Through her artwork, she explores the “essence of life”, which she says represents the expectations, reality, hardship, vision, happiness, and love of the people living in slums.

Her most recent collection in charcoal and oil makes use of material used by a mother in her journey through motherhood, which includes a painting done on a mother’s saree. She has also used a shawl, old bed sheet, carpet and other readymade materials as surface, emphasising on the emotional energies they represent, and also symbolic of the narratives she has painted. The tonalities are bold and powerful.

“Every scratch, every hole and every wrinkle in a mother’s cloth has a memory. For me, the use of this readymade material is indiscriminate and complex. I’ve made it an integral part of my art practice,” says the self-taught artist who has previously exhibited her work at various international and national forums, including the World Art Dubai in 2020 and India Art Festival earlier this year. In 2016, she also established the Annsagar Foundation in Palam Vihar, Gurgaon, to work on inequality and social issues.

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