I started working on this series of drawings and paintings on paper based on my personal experiences. Street urchins forced to perform acts of jugglery in front of the public just to earn a piece of bread (roti). Even doing terribly difficult and fantastic acts of acrobatics. Small kids with an innocent smile on their face doing the impossible. Farmers committing suicide, with debt to follow up by the helpless family. Migrants with punctured dreams, homeless on the streets of our cities. All unsung souls who die trying to achieve that minimum sanctity of humanness are my inspiration, my 'HEADS'. I am telling their tale of hope, despair, failure, struggle, deceit and tears. All these heads are reflecting the soul of our present society. The contemporary dilemmas of mankind are vividly portrayed here.
'HEAD TALE' stands on an understanding of daily exploration of our soulless journey towards attaining the truth. 'HEAD TALE' tries to visually trace the imperfect frameworks for negotiating the complexity of existence – a symbolic vastness within the greater vastness of this physical world. It's a galactic pile-up of reality – meditating prisms to which someone, somewhere, is still clinging. The elements facilitate engagement at all levels of consciousness, being provocative in nature. 'HEAD TALE' is based on our inner turmoil and its struggle with various elements. Influenced by forces of society, norms of survival, rules of coordinated etiquette, economic pitfalls, political lies, back stabbing idiots, race to success.
One might ask why only head. Well the head including the face is the real mirror of our soul. We read hundreds of faces in our daily life. Still we remember few, sometimes none. The head or face strikes you first and has its own story to tell. 'HEAD TALE' is an assemblage of strange contradictions of contemporary life. Some faces will remind you of the friend you just met on the street or the stranger who just make you laugh with his uncommon acts. Among millions of faces, some are truly memorable, for reasons unknown to us. Just too hard to erase from ones memory. Why we treasure them, is truly mysterious. This unknown connection maybe known as human bonding, so prehistoric yet surviving the troubles of our time. This element of mystery make our life naturally lovable. That slight twist of eyebrows, that cunning smile, the pale look, happy faces hiding everything beneath them, the anger blowing hot faces, old and tampered faces and so many of them. Scratched, curved, chiseled, painted, pampered, cannibalistic, injured, glorified and drowned in pain. Faces unlimited.
These 'heads' are common faces with uncommon stories carved on them. Raw in appearance and bold to the core. The colourful appearance is deceiving to one's eyes. Painted to hide something mysterious. The material used is least important. The cause becomes supreme, transforming your routine space and time to a new level. Sometimes the heads are meditating, one with the self. They are vulnerable but determined. They are on the path of self exploration to explore the world in a more divine way. The void in them is taking the form of solace. The monk of his soul is questioning the meaning of worldly encounters. Ready to take on pain with very little effort. Finding the Shangri-La within oneself is the endless journey of all humans.
The heads are not to dismantle but to challenge and question our ignorance. They make you confront painful realities and provoke thought. ‘HEAD TALE’ is a shock therapy for the disillusioned times. To tear down the corrupt citadel of fake dreams. These heads let you rediscover the lost moments of your soul. A tribute to honest living and slowly but surely the heads gets under our skin.
Artist Statement -
Soumen Bhowmick
