Text by Monisha Ahmed

CANTICLE

Woven Paintings by BOSHUDHARA MUKHERJEE

CA

NT

ICLE

www.tarq.in

F35/36 Dhanraj Mahal, CSM Marg, Apollo Bunder, Colaba, Mumbai 400001.www.tarq.in

Produced by

Artworks by Boshudhara Mukherjee

Designed by Anugrahastudioanugraha.com

Text by Monisha Ahmed

CANTICLE

Woven Paintings by BOSHUDHARA MUKHERJEE

The team at TARQ is excited to present Boshudhara Mukherjee’s fourth solo exhibition ‘Canticle’. In her first solo exhibition at the gallery, Mukherjee showcases a series of woven canvases from her meticulous practice. Titled ‘Canticle’, the exhibition encapsulates the meditative and almost hymn-like aspect of Mukherjee’s practice, in both large and small scale. Mukherjee’s complexly woven paintings, like a canticle, have within them, non-rhythmic yet repetitive forms and patterns, all of which contribute immensely to her striking visuals.

In an attempt to merge the gap between ‘art’ and ‘craft’, Boshudhara has developed a unique technique: while she paints the canvas using acrylic and oil she also weaves the canvas, transforming its very nature as a carrier of paint. The canvas

is the protagonist of Boshudhara’s art practice, going beyond its usual purview: it becomes a space; the painted canvas is cut and woven, sometimes more than once, creating and recreating the patterns, distorting them to create new, unexpected forms.

While the viewer is stunned by the intricacies of the surface, the artist is quick to point that one must keep in mind the process behind the creation; the destruction without which its creation would have not been possible. Boshudhara states that her art practice is much like life: one has to pick up the pieces, rebuild and move on but the scars remain.

Hena Kapadia,Gallery Director, TARQ

INTRODUCTION

02|03Canticle Boshudhara Mukherjee | Intoduction

The art of making textiles, alongside pottery, is amongst the oldest techniques mastered by the human race ever since prehistoric humans discovered that by manipulating plant stems it was possible to make a sturdy cord and use it to create a dense but pliable fabric. Woven fibres created the first shelters; the stitching of leaves shaped the earliest containers. Together with their functions, textiles also play a symbolic role, conveying meaning and narratives, touching on the social and cultural landscape that make up our lives.

Boshudhara Mukherjee’s work draws from this tradition; though she herself resists labelling it as ‘textiles’, she references her process as ‘weaving’. Not in the conventional sense, as she works without a loom, but in the very act of

floating in mid-air. As her work evolves, it articulates a sense of abstraction, the shapes and patterns emerging randomly but creating a sense of order within the measured disarray.

Each stage of her work is independent of the other, Boshudhara does not conceive of the finished work while painting the canvas. Yet somehow the layers are related, as she works each strip one over the other, a feeling of interdependence develops with one row supporting the next. As the work grows organically, Boshudhara tends to step back and allow the canvas strips to meander at will, to take on a life of their own. . She then layers them with found and supple objects of everyday use such as paper, plastic, fabric and tape. Each object she implants on her work has its own resonance with the piece as a whole.

Boshudhara studied painting at the Maharaja Sayajirao University, Baroda, but was never partial to the technique. She recalls always being ‘in a bit of a battle with painting’ and scratching out her drawings even before they were finished. She found canvas a passive medium for her expression, ‘the white rectangle intimidated me’, she commented, ‘I found frames confining, so I decided to let go of frames all together’. Preferring to work unshackled by a defined structure Boshudhara instigates the chaos before stepping in to control the movement and restrict it.

Working with fibres was not new to Boshudhara as she looks back at her

weaving which implies the interlacing of vertical threads with horizontal ones. Working across multiple mediums, she first puts paint to canvas ― sometimes in bold bands of colours, at other times as minimalist architectural features. She then slashes the canvas into strips of varying sizes, occasionally using a blade, at other times a scissor for better control and precision. Vertical strips are then hung off a strip of wood and suspended from the ceiling or laid flat on the floor, and then the interlacing begins. She weaves one over the other, in any direction, the patterns taking shape as the form of the work emerges in front of her. Straight lines giving ways to meandering curves, creating hollow spaces within spheres, an open door, a closed window, a spiral staircase leading to a landing, the end of a canvas strip

childhood in Darjeeling. ‘The hands have always been busy’, she reflects as she recalls evenings spent with the women in the house knitting and crocheting, sometimes stitching. She was taught all three skills when she was quite small, as is often the practice for women across cultures to be taught gender-defining roles from a young age. But that aside, this probably instilled in her an interest to work with textiles early on in her life and a fascination of ‘working with the hands’.

Drawing on her childhood memories and studies in art college, Boshudhara redefined the role of fibre in her work. From large-scale pieces to smaller, more intimate work, her singular approach to materials exemplifies her masterful articulation of colour, texture, space and scale. ‘Canticle’ is the fourth of Boshudhara’s solo shows, the first being ‘Painted Veil’ (2010), the second ‘The Dangling Conversation’ (2012) and the third ‘Soliloquy’ (2014). The works in this show appear more calm and composed, the colours more muted and sober. The distortions are more tapered, perhaps mirroring the changes in Boshudhara’s own life as she grows and explores her surroundings. ‘Canticle’ encapsulates a certain defined regularity in the non-rhythmic yet repetitive forms of her work, implying a meditative, almost hymn-like aspect to her practice.

Yet another dimension to Boshudhara’s work is the use of recycling. Much as old clothes are salvaged, repaired and reused, she reworks old canvases and finished pieces. The tradition of recycling

CANTICLE Text by Monisha Ahmed

04|05Canticle Boshudhara Mukherjee | Essay

is common in India with quilts made from old saris or flat-woven dhurries made from scraps of cloth. The reworking of her pieces are also in response to memories ― a friend’s wedding card, a discarded section of wallpaper from her mother. Placing older work in conversation with the new, Boshudhara creates an almost autobiographical piece, an understanding of her own practice that allows for innovation, appropriation and constant re-imagination. Reconfiguring her works, infusing them with new meaning, gives Boshudhara the freedom of discovery each time a work reinvents itself.

Boshudhara’s is an art of conscious and deliberate destruction but balanced with a sense of reconciliation. First creating disorder, she then restores each piece to its own entirety, almost like a completeness born out of turmoil. Incongruities certainly exist but within that a sense of calm prevails as the connections are rebuilt with one canvas strip repeatedly going over and under the next one. Building order where she once destroyed instils a spiritual oeuvre to her

pieces as they hang as sentinels of the two diametrically opposing, yet connected, sides of life – creation and destruction.

The works also expose the fragility of life as textiles, because of their inherent nature, seldom survive. Veiled under the repetitive act of weaving is a deeper intimacy to the cyclical nature of life and the inescapable forces of nature.

That India has a long and rich tradition of textile traditions is widely acknowledged but textile-fibre art in the country is still emerging. Artists such as Nelly Sethna, Monika Correa and Mrinalini Mukherjee have been pioneers in this field, while more recently the works of Mithu Sen, Neha Puri Dhir, Gopika Nath, Shakuntala Kulkarni among others, have used fibre or textiles as their medium. Yet the numbers are small, perhaps with such a vast history of traditional textile practices it is overwhelming and difficult to work and experiment against this background. The trajectory continues in ‘Canticle’ as Boshudhara Mukherjee’s work reflects her involvement with the technical, aesthetic and non-verbal language of textiles.

Canticle Boshudhara Mukherjee | Essay 06|07

TurretOil on Canvas15 x 17 inches2014

08|09Canticle Boshudhara Mukherjee

3 StoriesOil on Canvas38 x 18 inches2014

Green RoomOil on Canvas29 x 17 inches2014

10|11Boshudhara MukherjeeCanticle

12|13

CitadelOil on Canvas21 x 23 inches2014

Blue WaveOil on Canvas20.5 x 20.5 inches2014

Boshudhara MukherjeeCanticle

U TurnMixed Media on Canvas57 x 95 inches2013

14|15Canticle Boshudhara Mukherjee

Dress CircleOil on Canvas34.5 x 10 inches2014

16|17

Rain (Detail)Mixed Media on Canvas128 x 92 inches2013

18|19Canticle Boshudhara Mukherjee

Jazz (Detail)Mixed Media on Canvas120 x 72 inches2014

20|21Canticle Boshudhara Mukherjee

Bridges (Detail)Mixed Media on Canvas84 x 78 inches2014

Canticle Boshudhara Mukherjee

Reap (Detail)Mixed Media on Canvas105 x 99 inches2015

24|25Canticle Boshudhara Mukherjee

Feb (Detail)Mixed Media on Canvas94 x 75 inches2015

Canticle Boshudhara Mukherjee

Delta (Detail)Mixed Media on Canvas141 x 85.5 inches2016

28|29Canticle Boshudhara Mukherjee

Loss (Detail)Mixed Media on Canvas90 x 82.5 inches2016

30|31Canticle Boshudhara Mukherjee

Boshudhara Mukherjee studied painting at the Maharaja Sayajirao University in Baroda and has been exhibiting actively since her graduation in 2008. She has had three solo shows, two in Mumbai at the Volte gallery and at the Gallery Sarah in Muscat, Oman. She received the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant in 2013 and the Inlaks Foundation Fine Art award in 2010.

Monisha Ahmed is an independent researcher whose work largely focuses on art practices and material culture in Ladakh. Her doctoral degree from Oxford University developed into the book ‘Living Fabric – Weaving among the Nomads of Ladakh Himalaya’ (2002), which received the Textile Society of America’s R L Shep award in 2003 for best book in the field of ethnic textile studies. She has published several articles on textile arts of the Himalayan Buddhist World as well as other areas in India, more recently a chapter on textiles for ‘The Arts and Interiors of Rashtrapati Bhavan – Lutyens and Beyond’ (2016), and the catalogue ‘Woven Treasures – Textiles from the Jasleen Dhamija Collection’ (2016). She co-edited ‘Ladakh – Culture at the Crossroads’ (2005) and collaborated on ‘Pashmina – The Kashmir Shawl and Beyond’ (2009). Formerly Associate Editor of ‘Marg’, she is co-founder and Executive Director of the Ladakh Arts and Media Organisation (LAMO), Leh.

BIOGRAPHIES

Canticle Boshudhara Mukherjee | Biographies