REVIEWS

It was a chance meeting with a senior Army officer at an informal gathering of a theatre group in Delhi that catapulted Aarti Zaveri into her first series of paintings. That meeting opened the doors for a series of portraits of war heroes and gallantry award winners from the Indian armed forces. These portraits adorn the walls of offices of the defence ministry and other defence establishments.

Born in Rajkot city of Gujarat, Aarti spent four decades in her home state before shifting to Delhi in 2007. She developed a keen sense of interest in visual art at a prime age and she kept at it all the time. Aarti works on mixed media and oil on canvas. She is also working on sculptures. But, her mainstay is oil on canvas.

After establishing herself strongly in portraiture, Aarti started exploring other themes. She started out with black-and-white figurative works. They had certain dreaminess about them. Interestingly, they also had a few traces of colour which were no more than hint of colour than anything else. Later she took to painting paved paths and railway tracks in black and white. Here too streaks of colour appeared in the paintings. But, the application of colours in these black and white paintings, were more pronounced than those of her earlier paintings.

Aarti Zaveri plunged deep into the colours of one of the most colourful states of India, Gujarat, and emerged with vibrant colours. The two sets of paintings she created from 2010 to 2012 for her ‘Pehchaan’ series announced her romance with colours. Along with rich colours, she introduced interesting characters and elements into Jigsaw puzzles for her next series of paintings in 2013.

In 2013, Aarti set out on a ‘Timeless’ travel creating several paintings in the process. She is still working on this series and has already created over 25 paintings in this series. The current exhibition features paintings from this series. Through this series of paintings, she wants to emphasise that the circle of time is in continuous motion and there is nothing called the end of time.

Aarti’s imagination is spurred by deep-rooted philosophy. Many images in the ‘Timeless Moments’ series use the Tao symbol of ‘Yin and Yang’ as idioms. Yin and Yang are two fish-like figures in black and white that occupy a circle completely which is at the heart of Chinese philosophy of Taoism.

The ‘Yin and Yang’ symbol explains how opposite principles or forces are distinct and complementary at the same time. For instance, if the white fish signifies ‘good’ and the black fish signifies ‘evil’ the colour of the eye of the white fish is black. Similarly, the colour of the eye of the black fish is painted in white. The eye is interpreted as a seed. So, the seed of good is inherent in evil and the seed of evil is inherent in good. And, it takes both the figures to make the complete whole. The black and white surfaces on the Yin and Yang symbol may signify night and day; the colours black and white; evil and good; the female and male principles; negative and positive energies; passive and active aspects—or, just about anything.

‘The Waterway of Time ’juxtaposes the’ Yin and Yang’ sign against the backdrop of a clock which signifies time. Aarti explains that time is like water. The passage of time cannot be stopped just as the flow of water cannot be stemmed. Just like water, time has no beginning and it has no end. It flows continuously. Here, the artist’s imagination shines through the vibrant and colourful ‘Yang.’ I have never seen ‘Yang’ or the white portion or the sunny side represented in colour before.

Time is eternal. We live in a timeless universe. But, we have made ourselves the slaves of time by tying everything to time. What time we get up; what time we go to office; what time we go to gym; and what time we go to sleep are all determined by time. We have become slaves and prisoners of the clock. Because we are slaves of time, we fail to enjoy our lives to the fullest.

The ‘Twisted Tim’ portrays the image of the shadow of the clock in background and the original dial of the clock twisted out of shape in front. The original dial is not in round shape. It is severed at the ends and one end of the original dial escapes into the universe through the shadow of the clock. By doing this, the artist seeks to change the sequence of time. The moment we break free of this prison called time, we will be like infants who live and enjoy every moment of their lives.

The artist celebrates the ride into ‘Timelessness’by using the horse as an idiom. In Hindu mythology, the Sun God is believed to ride a chariot drawn by seven white horses. In this picture, the transparent form of the seventh horse emerges from the dial of the clock which is set against the backdrop of the globe and the universe to take the viewer on a ‘ride into timelessness.’

‘Enso Moment of Love’ symbolizes the Zen circle. It shows the positive and negative energies moving in the opposite directions and towards one another. A piece from Aarti’s Jigsaw puzzle theme has also slotted itself in the time warp. She says, the whole painting is about living the moment. In the Zen moment, there is nothing and there is everything. When we live by the clock, time moves on and memories do not register or they fade easily. But, when we live the moment, memories get frozen in time and time stands still at memorable moments.

Two circles of Yin and Yang and two contorted circles emerging from a distorted clock in the background represent ’Transition’ in Aarti’s painting. The painting displays two seeds of negative and positive energies or black and white merging with one another. The constant churning of the Yin and Yang principles perpetuate transition and sets the entire universe is eternal motion triggering continuity in transition.

Like the ‘transition’ of her ‘Timeless Moments’ series, Aarti is in a constant state of transition. When she moves from one theme to another or from one series to another, she continues to live in the memorable moments of her earlier works and often carries them into her new series of works. In the time to come, you may find her introducing many more themes to her timeless pieces of art !

Vincent Van Ross
The Author is an art historian and political and cultural commentator