National 6 (Spotlight Weekly)

Women As Power

Kanchan Chander's paintings celebrate the female form

By BINITA PANDEY

Contemporary paintings by Indian artist Kanchan Chander went on display last week at the Siddhartha Art Gallery, enlivening Kathmandu's growing art scene. Film actor Rajesh Hamal inaugurated the exhibition and launched the book "Fires of the Sea, Tenderness of the Desert" by the Libyan poet Idris M.Tayeb, on April 25. The show remained open until May 1.

In Chander's 24 paintings, we can find celebration of women form. Her female forms do not include heads or any other specific identification. "I don't want to identify her," said Chander. Earlier her works were more serious in browner, mundane colors. But now she works with the female forms. "This is women as power," said the artist.

The female forms are decorated with sequins, silver leaves, hooks, buttons and wrapping paper. "For a female, looking good is very important. All this is, therefore, celebrating," said Chander. Her paintings were on offer for a price range between Rs.12,000 and Rs.85,000.

One of her female forms is a silvery figure caught in movement that mix with pink. "Wine and Dine," it is called. "The Delhi scene is getting very hip," said Chander. "I have been wining and dining a lot with a lot of pubs coming up, the social life in Delhi is coming alive."

Two of her works are portraits or rather sequinned heads. "I worked with faces a lot earlier," she explained. "No I don't give them a body, I don't put heads and faces together," she added. Her other paintings include "Lavnya", "Torso", "The Sequined Head I and Head II", and "Isolation I and II".

Chander has also drawn inspiration from her son Pallav. One work entitled "Pallav's World" tells of the mother-son relation, mapping Pallav's life from when he was a little child. "Pallav is 13," said the proud mother, showing the "Takhtis" on which the togetherness of the two is shown clearly. "The slates are a mix of algebra, geometry, Hindi art, games, doodling and more homework, all artistically mixed together."

Chander was born in 1957 in New Delhi. In 1986 she got an international print Biennale Award at Bradford UK. She is the founder member of the Indian Printmakers Guild. She has often travelled to Nepal and this was her second exhibition here. This time her art traveled with Tayeb's poetry.

"They give beauty to life", says Tayeb, who besides being a poet and diplomat is also a very good Oudh (a three stringed Arabic musical instrument) player. "I agreed to edit his poetry because it has great tenderness that goes straight to the heart," states Shibani Ahuja Kapoor.

By reading the book and watching the paintings, Hamal said: "I am not a writer myself but there have been moments in my life when most things failed and writing an poetry saved me. It relives my spirit and cleanses my souls, I believe paintings and poetry are two sides of the same coin and this is a double treat. Chandra's art for the eyes and Tayeb's poetry for words it is like having your cake and eating it too."