Bangladeshi artist Ayesha Sultana creates abstract drawings using paper and graphite, teasing poetry out of the mundane and removing the film of familiarity from our eyes. Trained at the Beaconhouse National University in Lahore, Pakistan, the 30-year-old will be showing her work at her first solo exhibition, Outside the Field Of View, which opens today at the Experimenter gallery in Kolkata.
Sultana’s work draws on a well-worn tradition of Op Art, pioneered by artists like Bridget Riley, though it can be traced back to 19th century masters like Georges Seurat, founder of the pointillist style, which uses millions of dots of colour, much like pixelated photographs, to create paintings. Sultana’s work is austere and inward-looking, quite removed from the vibrant joyousness of vintage Riley. Interweaving light and shade, her compositions convey an illusion of motion after the manner of classic Op Art.
Sultana’s aim is to make viewers aware of what lies beyond their immediate field of vision and force them to look into the realm of the intangible. The attempt to imagine the invisible into existence is the ultimate artistic licence—but also fraught with the risk of becoming precious and self-indulgent. In Sultana’s work, both these impulses are tamed by the exquisite finish and thoughtfulness of the curation.
The intensity of Sultana’s pursuit is not only played out in her chosen form (abstraction) but also in her sensuous engagement with her medium itself: by cutting, tearing, scratching, and piercing the whiteness of paper, Sultana seems to release vital secrets that lie concealed in the interstices of her medium. In the photographic works, this minimalism persists, in the underplayed but grimly beautiful imagery.
Outside the Field Of View is on till 26 June, 11am-7pm (Sundays closed), at Experimenter, 2/1, Hindustan Road, Kolkata (40012289).
