Alluvial Faces 2

Kalidas Karmakar with one of his art works

Eminent artist Kalidas Karmakar's solo art exhibition, titledAlluvial Faces 2, is on at the Gallery Kaya at Uttara. It is the 59th solo exhibition of the artist. Through installations, lithography, paintings and mixed media, Kalidas has successfully portrayed the contemporary social turmoil and its impact on the individual's psyche. Kalidas presents differentAlluvial Facesseries depicting this subject in different media.

Each of his digital lithographs of the Alluvial Faces series is the portrait of a human being containing delicate wavy lines, which represents the struggle of the inhabitants of Bangladesh to survive the vagaries of nature as well as the follies of the society. The linear lines on the portraits, similar to the Tibetan Buddhist art trend, represent the complexities of the human being. 'I am applying computerised digital lithography technique for the first time in this region,' Kalidas claims. ' The work process of digital lithography is similar to the traditional one; however, through laser technology splendid engravings can be created by a special computerised litho-machine,' he adds. The exhibition contains 25 lithographic pieces.

Kalidas says, 'Day by day, we are losing our rationality in this materialistic society and getting transformed into lifeless elements.' And he interestingly illustrates his concept in his Holy Symbol series. The mixed media presentation is done on washi, a special kind of Japanese hand-made papier mache.

Another Alluvial Faces series using ink and gouache on paper, depicts bright colours like black, red and blue, symbolising the vulgarity and terrorism in society. He has used ink, washi, pastel on paper and light colours like burnt sienna, light green, light yellow in another Alluvial Faces series. Realistically this series presents the sufferings of women in this materialistic society.

Kalidas' acrylic Alluvial Faces presents two themes--what should happen in the society and what is happening instead. Eight abstractionist paintings of the series reflect his optimism about a better future, a characteristic style of the Hinduism-based presentation. The destroyed human images are in burnt sienna while another colourful frame at the corner symbolically represents a better future. Kalidas's optimism is also seen in the final Alluvial Faces series in exhibition, in which he has used triangular blue canvas and a few red strokes on it. In the style of the Old Testament, in which the triangle represents 'God's Eye', Kalidas has symbolically presented divinity.

The most interesting of all is, however, his presentation of mixed media and objects on metal sheet. He has presented the whole society--anti-social activity, black money, frustration of the common people--on a single canvas by using symbolic colours and metal objects.

A typical Kalidas is found in these mixed media and collage works. Kalidas says, 'I really enjoy playing with colours and circles, as our entire life moves in a cyclic order. I have tried to present the complete life style through different types of circles, lines and colours in the collage.'