ABORIGINAL PHASE

1. ABORIGINAL DREAM TRAVELS (TRIPTYCH)
2. ABORIGINAL DREAMSCAPES (TRIPTYCH)
3. THE THREE SISTERS (SINGLE)
4. MY ANIMAL GUIDES (SINGLE)
5. MY ANIMAL SPIRIT GUIDES (SINGLE)

Precisely 9 paintings have been done in this series using pen and ink and acrylics on cartridge and handmade paper. These paintings are basically a record of what I saw in my dreams while I was very ill a few years ago. I will not be doing such styles of paintings again as my dreams have been instrumental in guiding these paintings.

I no longer have such dreams.

ABORIGINAL DREAM TRAVELS



I have never been to Australia so I have no idea as to why I should have dreamt about these Australian aboriginals and their symbols.Perhaps I will understand their significance some day.

Aboriginal people are indigenous (the first) Australians. They tell stories in words and pictures about how the world began. They call this Dreamtime. Their stories are called Dreamings. The Australian Aborigines pay great attention to the dream state as they believe they are spiritual messages from their ancestors who are a part of nature.

This harmony between human existence and other natural things was expressed by Silas Roberts, first Chairman of the Northern Land Council, as:

Aboriginals see themselves as part of nature. We see all things natural as part of us. All the things on Earth we see as part human. This is told through the ideas of dreaming. By dreaming we mean the belief that long ago, these creatures started human society. These creatures, these great creatures are just as much alive today as they were in the beginning. They are everlasting and will never die. They are always part of the land and nature as we are. Our connection to all things natural is spiritual.

ABORIGINAL DREAMSCAPES



In many of my dreams I was always constantly on the move, travelling from one place to another, from one destination to another. It was as if I was familiar with the landscapes and the horizons but needed a little guidance. Often animals would guide me, sometimes it would be plants.I never really had conversations with the people that I met in my travels but they shared food and water with me and I took part in their rituals, dances, songs, celebrations and silences. I appreciate the fact that silence has its own chaos, its own music and its own sounds.

MY ANIMAL SPIRIT GUIDES

Sometimes I would travel for days with just the horizon in front of me. Except for the above painting 'My Animal Spirit Guides' all the other paintings are done with earthy reds, browns, oranges, blacks and whites - this is because the range of colours comprised of such colours.

Aboriginal Art uses earth colours. Why? These are the colours of the desert. Aboriginal artists made their paints from natural materials from the desert.



MY ANIMAL GUIDES

A common creature featured in all the paintings is The Snake or Serpent. This reptile for most seem to denote negativity - the snake or serpent in all my paintings signify new life, rebirth, change, and a new beginning. Mythological, in almost all cultures ranging from the Mayan, Egyptian, Greek, Mexican, Roman, Welsh, Russian, Indian and Aboriginal, The Serpent signifies regeneration as the snake is about the only animal that rejuvenates and regenerates its self by shedding its skin.

Briefly, the animals are representations of messages for eg. Turtle/Tortoise - Longevity, Wisdom and Knowledge, Fish - Strength, Agility and Speed, Moth/Butterfly - Metamorphosis, Change, Progress, New Beginning, The Lizard - Patience, Flexibility and so on.

Hieroglyphs for water is often a zigzag or wavy line representing waves of the sea or water signifying the water spirit - the waves always almost signify and are compared to a moving serpent. The serpent is often known as the great and powerful spirit and water a symbol of the unfathomable truth and wisdom. The serpent is often known as the great and powerful spirit and thus invariably identified as an alternative sign for the same idea thus becoming the symbol of Water Mother, Great Spirit, Celestial Wisdom and Perfect Power.

THE THREE SISTERS

Some of the aboriginal symbols I had done in my initial hospital sketches without understanding their meanings (which I later looked up)signify the following...


I was handed a book on an exhibition held by Dorothy Napangardi by Dr. Tilly Karuppiah of HUKM, Malaysia after she glanced through my hospital sketches. Many of the above artwork have adaptations of her real life photographs. Thank you Dorothy and thank you Tilly.

Dorothy Napangardi (b. 1956) is a prolific Australian Aboriginal artist from Mina Mina and one of around 3,000 Warlpiri speakers who live in or are originally from the Tanami Desert region of Central Australia. She won the Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award in 2001 for her work, Salt on Mina Mina.

It would seem fit to define these dreams in medical terms by using psychological reasoning and terminology such as hallucinatory images, illusionary perceptions, subconscious imagery and so on. However, I would prefer to treat these moments as experiences that helped me and edged me on to recovery. When the body is weak for long periods, there comes a time when the mind weakens - I would like to say that these experiences were very real to me, I lived through them and I survived as a result of them - how weak the mind becomes I cannot say, but I can truly say that the mind and body have an amazing will to heal themselves.

There is so much more to write on aboriginal art and to begin would mean never to end so I reluctantly take my leave from these pages...to kiv for a later date.

SIRIH

Sirih, the Malay word for Betel Leaf or paan (in Hindi), or beeda (in Tamil), or Kun-ya as it is known in Myanmar, is a type of digestive, which consists of fillings of sweet spices or tobacco, wrapped in a triangular package using leaves of the Betel pepper (Piper betel), held together with a toothpick or a clove.The filling is generally a mixture of various spices like cardamom, saffron, roasted coconut, cloves, fruits, sugar and also tobacco. Many types of paan contain Betel nuts as a filling, many other types do not.

Although the tradition of having paan was very common in the Malay and Indian cultures of Malaysia earlier on, it is now a dying tradition in Malaysia. The present generation of Malaysians can find evidence of it in the museum showcasing the special boxes or caskets (mainly silver), with several compartments where the sirih, the spices and the tobacco were stored and conveniently carried around for use at any given time and the instruments (clippers) used to clip the betel nut and the Spittoons to spit the paan juices.

Some Malaysian Indian communities still do maintain this traditional dish for temple ceremonies, weddings and other special occasions.In the sub-continent (India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka) and in Myanmar however, the tradition lives on with 'paan wallahs' or shopkeepers finding innovative and new methods, fillings and names to make it a very popular after meal digestive.

Sirih or Paan is chewed as a palate cleanser and a breath freshener. It is also offered to guests and visitors as a sign of hospitality and eaten at cultural events. In fact, in many earlier South and South East Asian Cultures, gifts to kings and priests and officials, would have as a necessary item the Betel Leaf besides perfume, tea, tobacco, spices, cotton and silk.


Of course, the Sirih in my painting looks very different from an actual Betel leaf (an example of which is given beside)... ah well... all goes in the name of artistic license. I have enjoyed the various shades of acrylic greens I have worked with. The gold outline of the leaf was an after thought which worked out pretty well. The boxes have been inspired by the Malaysian paddy fields which go on for miles and miles and by a very common check box design of the Malaysian sarong worn both by men and women. This painting took me five months to complete.

BROKEN EGG SHELLS

These experiments in line and colour using rapidograph and drawing ink on handmade paper were my obsession for a while.

The inspiration of this work comes from a dozen eggs that slipped from my hands and broke into a zillion pieces. I was fascinated with the shapes and forms of the broken pieces and so began this work. The more lines I created the more I was reminded of the significance of the egg in our lives.

We are born of the egg. Fascinating thought huh?

The egg moments in my life have been interesting. Half boiled eggs the English style for breakfast. The Bengali craze for having 'macher dim' (fish eggs)in all forms possible. Lizard eggs among the clothes in the cupboard. Boiled egg sandwich at picnics. Painting and decorating Easter Eggs on Good Friday for Easter Sunday. Extra fried eggs for being in the school swimming and basketball teams. Duck egg pastries and Bird egg soup. Decorated eggs for prosperity to welcome guests at Malay weddings. Carvings on Ostrich Egg. Attempting to make mayonnaise. 40 fresh eggs a day from Ma's Australian and local hens. Mushroom Omelet Fuyong. The acrid unpleasant smell of HCl (hydrogen chloride) simply described by Mr.Mathai, our chemistry teacher as the smell of rotten eggs. Bread Omelet and sweet milk tea on winter evenings at Ganga Dhaba, JNU (Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi), Scrambled eggs we all scrambled for at breakfast at MH (Mount Hermon School, Darjeeling), EVS Project on Fertilization from the spawn to the tadpoles to the frog and so it goes on....oh and how could I have forgotten Mr.Rocky Gardner's egg and bacon pie?

GULMOHUR

She flaunts and frolicks
Shamelessly
Painting the town red
Bursting into wild dances
Mindless of the heat and dust
Of the sweat on man's brow

Flamboyant Hussy
Flames of the Forest
The Gulmohur

She reigns the streets
Indiscreetly
Inviting weary souls
Flouting nature's rules
With her ravishing wanton beauty
Heedless of the stagnant euphoria
Of the fierce midday fervour

My Jezebel
Mistress of Summer
The Gulmohur

'A tribute to the Gulmohur'. Shahpurjat, New Delhi. 2003

While I have referred to the Gulmohur Tree as a 'wanton woman', I have in all sincerity attempted to give her the dignity, power, respect and honour that she deserves.

I have spent many many hours in the scorching Delhi summers looking at her and being inspired by her. There have been days when there was no electricity, no water,the spirits of men were squeezed out of their very existence, tempers flared, nobody had anything good to say to anyone, the heat... the heat did it. It quashed the souls of men and made them beasts.

The Gulmohur... she did not bother. She stood there proud and welcoming, defying the vicious loo winds and mocking the intense heat. The harder it blew the wilder she danced, the hotter it turned the more brilliant her colours mocked.

Yeah, the Gulmohur, my inspiration.

This triptych was done using texture white to give it an almost three dimensional textured feel and a background of the analogous combinations of red, orange and yellow acrylics to highlight the intense heat as opposed to the dynamic hues of the Gulmohur flower complemented by the greens and blues of the leaves. I have also used gold highlights to emphasise their brilliance.

LOTUS

I did this painting as a tribute to the Lotus Sutra which I was studying at that time.

The Lotus Sutra's philosophy and wisdom edifies the positive within the negative. Like the beautiful Lotus flower that emerges from muck so does everything else in life. How would there be good if there was no evil, how would there be light if there was no darkness, how would there be life if there was no death... and so on.

This painting signifies the possibility and the finality of the positive within the negative.

I have used texture white to give it it's texture. Done with acrylics on canvas board, it consists of two panels. I call this phase of mine the panel phase. Perhaps I have resorted to using small panels as my health does not allow me to stand and lean for hours over a big canvas, it is easier for me to work with smaller panels on the table.

Again and again I find myself breaking down my artwork to their simplest forms omitting all details, almost like one would find in any animated work, like comic books for eg. very graphic. I enjoy this style of work very much specially the textures and the pure colours.

RAVANA

This pen and ink illustration was inspired by a very ugly incident with an acquaintance which got me thinking on the dual and multi personalities we maintain with ourselves and in front of the world.

I believe that in our own right we are all 'schizophernic' and have multi-personalities. Psychiatrists and Psychologists may give it fancy terms and terminologies but we deny ourselves this truth - this is with no offence to anybody, this is what I believe. We are all senile in that the line between sanity and insanity is very slim.

We behave differently with different people be it our friends, our colleagues, our neighbours, our relatives, our siblings; we behave differently in different situations be it a rock concert, a class seminar, a family wedding, a religious ritual, a funeral; we behave differently with our pets and with street animals. We alternate egos and personalities to suit ourselves and others.

The question "Who am I?" is often pondered on... I wonder how many of us actually get into the "What am I?" I have spent many hours in my hospital bed pondering this question. I am so many roles in one, I am my parents' child, I am my sisters' and brothers' sister, I am my nieces' aunt, I am my uncles' and aunts' niece, I am my students' teacher, I am my doctors' patient, I am my friends' friend, I am a woman, I am an artist, I am an educationist, I am a Bengali, I am a Malaysian, I am a realist, I am apolitical, I am a free thinker, I am ..... and the list goes on.

I am so many persons in one, so many egos in one, so many personalities in one... I cannot for the life of me specify what I am.

I am what I am. The question ends where it began.

I based this painting on a combination of the Indian rooted Malaysian Puppetry known as 'Wayang Kulit' or Shadow Puppet Play performed by a 'Tok Dalang' or Puppet Master accompanied by his assistants and an orchestra playing local traditional instruments. Stories of the Wayang Kulit originated and emerged from the great epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata.

These Shadow Puppet plays were a form of entertainment before the advent of television and cinema in the villages and towns of Malaysia. Nowadays one is privileged to actually catch a Wayang Kulit Show. The art of making the puppets is a dying culture as is the rarity of a Tok Dalang and the accompanying musical troop. The stories of the Ramayana and Mahabharata have been replaced by stories of local historical figures like Hank Jebat and Hang Tuah.

I have used the character of Ravan for he is the perfect man and the perfect villain. Instead of illustrating a Wayang Kulit Puppet, I have chosen to make Ravan a dual masked personality representing the alter ego. I have tried my best to be true to the Wayang Kulit traditional representation through the experimentation of line and colour.

This is a three panel artwork done on handmade paper using pen, ink and coloured pencil.

DEATH

Titled 'DEATH' this painting of mine took 7 months of working continuously 14-16 hours a day to complete. I have delighted in working with acrylics. Four to eight coats have been given for each colour filled. The emotions attached to this painting are very strong and valid.

There was a period in my life when death was a daily opponent I had to face, a period of grave physical illness and mental confusion. A period when realization came to me that death was another living. My 'opponent' soon became my most trusted friend.

Death was comforting without the forces of threat. Death came to me in friendship, serenity, comfort, brightness and warmth. Death was positive and in harmony with the rest of the universe. Death was alive and represented the glory of living.

I have lived through many journeys with Death. My travels have been illuminated with colours I have not experienced and emotions I have never felt. In painting this painting I have tried to express that beauty and positivity. The title 'Death' met with much opposition and I have been asked to rename it 'Rebirth' or 'Life'. So far, I have been unable to do so. Every time I look at this painting it reminds me of my gentle companion and wise friend Death.... and no, I am not suicidal, I do not have a death wish. I celebrate life in all its splendour and in its utter dreariness.

DEATH is about the beauty, glory and strength I have felt to continue my journey in life.