Bold thoughts in black and white
Pavel Ahmed, whose acrylic on paper and pen-and-ink sketch solo exhibition is on at the Gallery Zoom at Alliance Francaise, has an abstract theme, which he presents in a contemporary way. He calls his subject “The visualisation of orchestration of cosmic noise.” Thus he relates art to cosmic sounds. “I want my viewers to feel and not just see,” says Ahmed. He chose acrylic as it has the effect of oil despite being water based.
Asked why he chose black and white to express his thoughts and emotions he says,” Black and white are opposite colours, which are most effective. Again, there are conflicting and contrary energies floating around in the universe. There is the struggle and strife of the rich against the poor; of the first world against the third world, with the Capitalists against the Leftist -- and so I put my white against the black”, he says. Thus the black and white splotches, dashes, lines, curves, dotes and squiggles all carry some meaning.
The artist wishes to communicate with his viewers and so he puts his feelings in his artworks to tell the people of his thoughts and hopes. Like many artists today in Bangladesh and overseas, especially in South Asia, he is concerned with the socio-economic and political imbalances and disasters. By himself he may not be able to do much to remedy the poverty and strife. Nevertheless Ahmed, with his pen, roller, razor blade, brush, ruler, palette knife and using even his finger attempts to bring images to stir up his viewer's conscious.
The celebration of all colours is in white or black, according to Ahmed. “The opposite is black. From white light we get all our varied colours, so why not celebrate this hue for all to see and take note of. The three basic colours, red , yellow and blue become whit --I'd like to stress -- are what concern me. I'm preoccupied with the conflicting effect of the colours of the universe, as well as their relationship,” he adds.
his mood and passion guides him to select colours for his compositions. In his studio in Barisal, he sometimes tears up his work if it doesn't satisfy him. “I can't work to order,” says Pavel. Spontaneity is what he believes in: Following the urges from within him. Thus he has brought in sounds, colours, and images in his works in “Gaya 30102809” the name of his exhibition being taken from a terminology of the cosmos. The forms in his paintings are geometrical in shape and broken in appearance. “These are visualizations of sounds around us,” says Pavel.
Ahmed is influenced by contemporary artists and is a self-taught painter of promise, his works being similar with that of Soulages.
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