Bholanath Rudra (b.1984)
The Golden Boat I
Watercolour on paper
44.09 x 55.31 in. (112 x 140.5 cm.)
2024, Kolkata
The main image throughout the exhibition is the moon. Steeped in the varied shades of darkness of the night, it appears in different moods and shapes, endowing the paintings of the forest and river with profound emotive quality. However, the moonlit nature, which grips us with its tremendous scenic beauty, retains some dark spots of bitterness – darker than the night itself. Although it can be romantic and even dreamy and tempts us to forget the realities of the harsh, fallen world, the images of the captive and wounded wild animals, which reflect man's incredible greed and cruelty in the context of elephant poaching, do not let that happen. The tension lies at the heart of Bholanath Rudra's nocturnal watercolours in the show.
Bholanath Rudra is a master draughtsman and outstanding watercolourist of our time, known for his technical prodigy. Working on a larger, independent sheet of paper, he adds many layers and combinations of colour washes to create misty and areal effects and exceptional moping technique and detailing. For him, watercolour is more than just a medium. He does not use it as a mere means to an end to create a picture; instead, he thinks through watercolour, considering its fluidity, movement, and uncertainty as integral to the whole artistic experience and meaning. In other words, watercolour has taken an autonomous life for Rudra, as the medium subsumes all forms and a gamut of varied, often contradictory emotions.
The moonlit forest and river are romantic landscapes. In contrast with many present-day critical approaches to landscape with maps, statistical data, objective description, and analysis, Rudra's watercolour paintings evoke high feelings, a deep sense of morality, and drama. There is nothing quotidian in Rudra's paintings, characterized by the delicate blending of patches and details, glow and darkness, fiction and truth, fascination and terror, and, most significantly, the sayable and paintable. Most of Rudra's significant watercolours – like those on display – speak of contemporary global issues, the growing conflicts between humans and the natural world– deforestation, quarrying, animal poaching and unplanned urbanization – in the age of high modernity. He, however, does not use the direct language of protest like a poster to make viewers aware of the harsh truth; instead, he uses the subtle, layered and indirect language of painting to evoke empathy in them. Besides this, his other paintings, such as The Golden Boat I & II, are not about protest but personal allegories and symbolism; the enigmatic boat with wheels may illustrate the story of ancient human aspiration for culture, civilization and progress. The human beings are not prominently depicted; the row of torches like fireflies in the forest marks their subdued, collective existence. The play of various grades of light and darkness articulates a notion of survival, which is moving and transitory rather than permanent.
The paintings showing wounded elephants and our remorseless lust for ivory capture the troubled relationship between humans and animals and our moral passivity and helplessness in the modern world. The moonlit forest is a site of sublime beauty, but it is also, at the same time, a site of trespass and survival. Just as the night landscape with forest and moon connects the individual works in the show, Rudra's intelligent use of figural similitude between the crescent moon, elephant's tusk and the boat's carved shape also offers a visual synthesis.
As we look at the paintings, the eyes of the moon look back at us. The moon that lures us with its intoxicating purity also makes us think, resisting our constant attempt to withdraw from reality and not face it.
Arkaprava Bose
-
Here, on the forest's edge, I pitched camp.
All night long in the pleasant southern breezes
By moon's light
I listen to the grunt of a doe in heat.
Whom is she calling?
Somewhere, a deer is hunted tonight.
Hunters entered the forest today.
I, too, seem to catch their scent,
As I lie here on my bed
Not tired at all
On this Spring night.
The wonder of the forest everywhere around,
An April breeze,
Like the taste of the moonlight’s body.
A doe bleats all through the night.
Somewhere deep in the forest beyond the moonlight’s reach
All stags hear her.
They sense her presence,
Coming towards her.
Now, in this night of wonder
Their time for love has arrived.
[…]
- Jibanananda Das, In Camp
এখানে বনের কাছে ক্যাম্প আমি ফেলিয়াছি ;
সারারাত দখিনা বাতাসে
আকাশের চাঁদের আলোয়
এক ঘাইহরিনীর ডাক শুনি , -
কাহারে সে ডাকে !
কোথাও হরিণ আজ হতেছে শিকার ;
বনের ভিতরে আজ শিকারীরা আসিয়াছে ,
আমিও তাদের ঘ্রাণ পাই যেন ,
এইখানে বিছানায় শুয়ে শুয়ে
ঘুম আর আসে নাকো
বসন্তের রাতে ।
চারিপাশে বনের বিস্ময় ,
চৈত্রের বাতাস ,
জ্যোৎস্নার শরীরের স্বাদ যেন !
ঘাইমৃগী সারারাত ডাকে ;
কোথাও অনেক বনে – যেইখানে জ্যোৎস্না আর নাই
পুরুষ- হরিণ সব শুনিতেছে শব্দ তার ;
তাহারা পেতেছে টের ,
আসিতেছে তার দিকে !
আজ এই বিস্ময়ের রাতে
তাহাদের প্রেমের সময় আসিয়াছে ;
[…]
- জীবনানন্দ দাশ, ক্যাম্পে
