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Of Psychedelic Swirls and Geometric Symmetry - The Hindu PDF
Of Psychedelic Swirls and Geometric Symmetry - The Hindu PDF
Of Psychedelic Swirls and Geometric Symmetry - The Hindu PDF
ART
Artists Harminder Judge and Mahirwan Mamtani have distinct practices. Judge, born in
1982 and raised in the UK, is a student at the Royal Academy in London.
Mamtani was born in Sindh in 1935, displaced to Delhi as a result of Partition, and has
studied, lived, and worked in Munich since 1966. Separated by space and time, the two
artists’ paths may have never crossed if not for a fortuitous intervention. Gallerists Amrita
and Priya Jhaveri have made a carefully-considered yet decidedly-bold curatorial choice in
their ongoing exhibition, At Home in the Universe at Jhaveri Contemporary. The show
facilitates a conversation between Judge and Mamtani based on their shared interest in
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tantra, a set of ideas and practices that allow individuals to associate with the cosmos or
something greater than themselves. This is not the first time the gallery has presented an
unlikely pairing of artists. They have previously exhibited improbable duos such as Amrita
Sher-Gil and Lionel Wendt, among others. While the artists and their practices may seem
incompatible at first, viewing their works together “evokes imaginative and constructive
dialogue around particular ideas,” suggests Priya. Tantra as a subject is not novel to the
gallery either — the current show follows on from their 2016 exhibition, Thinking Tantra.
Mamtani’s paintings from the 1980s, belong to his ‘Centrovision’ series that responds to
tantric doctrines and depicts images representing mandalas. His forms that feature precise
lines and well-defined spaces, emanate from the centre of his canvasses or wood cut-outs,
towards peripheries and explore the subject of wholeness through microcosmic and
macrocosmic relationships. Heald states, “these works speak of transformation and the
potential to explore alternative dimensions, but they are also intensely personal.” Judge,
alternatively, devices a controlled and ritualised process using construction material
including plaster, polymer, and pigment through which he builds works that rely upon
chance in their ultimate visual manifestations. His process alludes to Renaissance frescos
and reverse glass-painting techniques. “Judge’s work is more open with swathes of
unadorned space, it is less directive,” explains Heald.
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Although the artists employ varying strategies, they both create works that enable an
engagement with the universe. Judge acknowledges via an email interview, “Mamtani’s
work may be more diagrammatic, more geometric, whereas mine are more organic and
fluid, but they both speak of painting as portals rather than mirrors held up to the world.”
The meditative works inspire viewers to introspect upon their own place in the universe,
accepting among other ideas, the variable and unpredictable consequences of what might
be entirely premeditated, and what is left to chance.
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