Faceting the Primordial
 

 

 

 

 

The output of artist Suniyata Khanna on the canvas can best be described as a communion between art and spirituality, and yet neither of these concepts are rendered into tangible demarcations. In fact, the visual archetypes of her art journeys emerge on the canvas as a presentation of beauty, as experienced through prayerful contemplation. What was begun as a desire to create a portrait of her spiritual guru, is now visible in her current exhibition, as tangible depictions on the theme of a spiritual surrender of the Self, titled  ‘Aatma Arpan’, as gleaned from the philosophy of the Bhagwad Gita, and dedicated to the artist’s revered guru.

 

 While the thinking behind her art practice is deeply rooted in her spiritual experience, the artist employs those techniques of art making that are based on tangible forms. What appears before the viewer as a play of subtle colours, when deciphered closely, reveals a subtle under layer of minuscule reproductions of images. Philosophically, the carefully thought out colour palette juxtaposed with layered outlines of forms, vocalize the idea that truth and beauty are intertwined. The tonal play on the surface communicates the profound revelation that one is not just a physical being, but also something that transcends the visual into the realm of the formless.

 

Commensurate with the representation of the philosophical and sanctified with the earthy and physical, is the artist’s selection of colour pigments. While a blue backdrop in her works signifies Infinity, the subtler tints that lie in the space, are the mouthpieces of human emotions. Through this rationale, the works amalgamate the tonal physicality of the works, with the Ultimate Truth. Also, a dexterous selection of colour preferences in somewhat blurred undertones, uplifts them from mere abstraction into the exactitude of ‘pure’ photography, acknowledging her influencer, Ansel Adams.

 

Nevertheless, an artist who remains staunchly independent in both theme and technique, Suniyata has remained original in her artistic expressiveness. By and large she has been successful in heading away from purist image making. Instead, her art utilizes the expressive strengths of colour to examine the power of inner thinking, as displayed on her canvas space.