Between the Hope and Fear- Nitin Arun Kulkarni

Visual art has the strength of captivating the soul of the artist. This brings the moulding of life turmoil and experiences into the idiom of his art, which gets nurtured through the doldrums and pains of life. The beauty of the process of creation is that the critical and emotional aspects of life are transformed into the blissful manifestation of energy and rigor. For some artists the happiness is experienced when they are engrossed into such a unique process of ‘psycho-technology’. The medium, technique and process of construction makes the technology work.

 PaRa ( Patil Rajendra ) and Nitin Kulkarni 

The unique aspect of the body of art created by Rajendra Patil is that he uses various mediums and techniques of art creation multidimensionally. He has also effectively used the digital form of art in this exhibition. The navigation of visual elements moving for joy is clearly felt by the viewer. There is no need to call the works as ‘abstract’ in order to experience his art.

The creative soul keeps coming back again and again towards the residue of joy; the energy of life which remains as a ‘negative’ form. This negative form isn’t negative in terms of its emotional nature; rather encountered as the endured space that haven’t been created but rather got its unmuted existence. This small spirit of human life which was always present but got overshadowed in material aspects of life, becomes the fulcrum for lifting the mundane; boredom of daily ritual of living, this negative shape becomes the ‘weapon’ against the non functional; non creative and sterile.

The form of weapon or tool is the form emerges from deduction. This shape is the most essential and therefore unstylish, one can decorate it around the main aspect of the function. The tool of battle for life, is absurd in terms of the aesthetic of superficial and therefore the most beautiful form, hence one cannot change it any further for fancy. The form of weapon or tool is negative in terms that the function for which the weapon is meant for is the positive aspect. The union of the function and form is going to bring the victory over the evil or mere opponent. The act of striking with the weapon is visualised in the mind and then practiced towards achieving excellence.

Sudhir Patwardhan and PaRa ( Patil Rajendra )

Rajendra believes that mere configuration of the aesthetic visual doesn’t qualify to be as art. Artists life lived and un-lived; his experiences and struggles are very much necessary for the completion of his art. “My art is the bridge between the past and future the past which came from a small town and present in the mahanagar Mumbai”. Experiences of farming from the past has always remained as inspiration for him, the various tools used in farming like plow, spade and sickle etc. were creating an subconscious impact for the abstract idiom of paintings and sculptures. The tools are now taking shapes of weapons in the chaotic environment of present surroundings. Fear is the source or the place of weapons. When the weapons are hung on the wall like those swords and shields that is the sign of shedding of fear. The weapon not used becomes an array of sight which enchants the sensory experience; but at the same time it also makes a subtle statement. This is the duality and union of two opposites like peace-violence; negative-positive; mutiny-subservience; action-sterility; hope-fear etc. As per Rajendra “My art is my statement” this statement has the potential of the dual nature of reality. The statement which isn’t like a statement and the visual isn’t only as for enchantment. ‘Striking the equilibrium of opposites is the true meaning of life’ is his art suggesting this?

Nitin Arun Kulkarni

 New Panvel, 30th September 2019