the vessel

The journey of human experiences seems endless. It is wide when measured by time and narrow when measured by values. Just like some antique and rusted vessel preserved and passed on to us by our forefathers, there are some customs and beliefs that are moulded into our thoughts. These ideologies are told but not taught, given but not placed and passed on but not channelized. As these dogmas of faith are consistently accepted without being questioned, the repercussions are chaotic and irreversible. This painting falls under the category of abstract art, the action painting that allows one to see the flow of motion and energy with naked eyes. The acrylic colors reposed on the canvas constitutes variety of emotions, emerged and augmented under various social circumstances and not just the one mentioned below. The painting is named as “THE VESSEL”, a tangible object that possesses longevity and can be transferred to anyone. The painting, as a whole, represents the social unrest, ambiguity, superimposition of faulty perceptions and its chaotic effect in the lives of people. The painting can be associated with a few incidents from the childhood memories of the painter wherein he had experienced certain traditional customs in the society, and yes we are talking about the 21st century. One such custom witnessed closely by him and made him feel strangely curious was menstruation and all the blind faiths that followed. He saw every woman older than him go through this phase where they submissively distanced themselves from others in their family and accepted the lowly treatment by the people in her surroundings. It seemed as if she had confined herself in the walls built by society and never even tried to look beyond it. It was only when he grew up that he realized that menstruation is a natural and a biologically frequent phase in the life of a woman which is unavoidable yet falsely treated as impure. As a matter of fact, menstruation enables a woman to conceive and gift life and yet all the times when she is going through the painful phase, she has to face the stale mentalities and faulty perceptions of people on the subject. Unfortunately, she is trapped in the net of rulebooks based on illogical judgments passed on by some ostensible identities that are considered to be the epitome of religious wisdom. In this painting, all the colors are chosen meticulously and every stroke of the same is governed by some occurrences amassed in the subconscious mind. The composition of these essential colors forms the genesis of this painting. Later on, the red strokes carry the weight of passion and aggression due to the void of the unknown. The juxtaposition of background in the painting represents the present scenario of the society and shows how the baseless teachings and incorrigible attitudes set in motion of a social collapse.