When one sees oxygen cylinders lying down on the ground, one is reminded of the grim situation during the Covid-19 pandemic, where shortage of oxygen cylinders wreaked havoc in hospitals and in many lives. The painting by artist, photographer and social commentator Shubhra Chaturvedi is one of the many stark images she paints to remind one of the dark times we live in.
The art is one among many such pieces on display at her exhibition ‘Khud Se RoohbaRooh’, curated by Georgina Maddox.
The Urdu word RoohbaRooh (meaning "coming face-to-face", or in this case, soul-to-soul) encapsulates the essence of Shubhra's journey, a reflective engagement with her own experiences and the turbulent socio-political landscape of our times. These works, spanning from 2018 to the present, are a powerful response to the cultural, social, and political upheavals that have shaped our world in recent years.
Shubhra’s art is a commentary in itself - she invites people to feel and respond to things happening around them and in the world, such as the Gaza war, killing and kidnapping of children, rape and murder of the Kolkata based doctor in August this year, Manipur violence and rapes of women, the Nirbhaya case, the lockdown in Kashmir and the dire situation during the pandemic. “This collection is my response to grief, and my own feelings on canvas. I was having a hard and uncertain time during the pandemic and hence, it manifested into art.”
She says that she wants to invite people to share her feelings and to look within and express their own emotions. “I want to ask people what is their response or have they become too numb with the 9-5 routine to actually feel sensitive towards events around them.”
Her art is dissent – it is in the canvases that Shubhra does not hold back on her socio-political messaging, where she shames and calls out against violence perpetrated against women and minorities. The assemblage of colours, textures and letters, essay a poetic as well as aesthetic content.
As for now, she wishes to indulge in some mindless art to rejuvenate from all the hard work she put in her exhibition. “I want to pat myself on the back and say well done for the hard work I have put in – no matter how good or bad it turned out but it is exactly the way I envisioned it to be. I’ll now follow the ink that flows on paper and directs me where to go,” she says.
Shubhra's artistic journey began to take a new direction in the years 2018-2019, a period marked by deep introspection and heightened awareness. Her work is an exploration of conflict—both within herself and in the external world—and a visual articulation of the societal fractures that have stirred her consciousness. The resulting pieces are socially aware, emotionally raw, and intellectually stimulating, tackling issues that resonate on both micro and macro levels.
Her creative process is like birthing a child, for as she gives vent to her creative expressions, the act of nurturing is enhanced. Moving from the painterly surface of the canvas to the three-dimensionality of soft paper-pulp sculptures, Shubhra has covered much ground since her last solo exhibition, 'Manahsthiti' in Delhi, in 2015, and then travelled to Mumbai in 2018. The prior works were primarily paintings. However, a fall where she fractured her hand, led to her discovering the medium of paper pulp, proving once again that often some of the most positive developments come from diversity.
The exhibition displays a variety of mediums, from paper pulp works to canvas works on paper and two dramatic installations.
The solo art exhibition ‘Khud se RoohbaRooh’ is being held at at Bikaner House, Delhi.
