Korean Art Centre, Dhoomimal Art Centre and Academy of Visual Media have put together a show in which Indian and Korean artists are participating.
Here’s Hemraj experience of it:
“If you have to guage your wealth, you don’t have to count your money but you examine the quality of your friends.”
As he shares contentedly, the bond that he has been able to experience with the Korean artists is one area of affluence, he feels strongly about.
His journey of art, he feels, has further been nurtured by allowing the impact of their art upon his, which he aptly recognises as hybridisation of art and how an artist should consciously absorb the wafting influences around him.
Here’s to Hemraj’s Art :
As he enters the zone inviting his
Childhood (the most pristine part of life, in the earthly journey) which is lost before one realises. But if one were to unconsciously find oneself having the best of it, reemerge?
Contemporary Artist Hemraj signals towards a state of innocence; of pure expression without any embellishment; of shedding all that was acquired through the journey, now to bare minimum? Dropping all weight of the acquisitions and knowledge?
To me the Indian abstract artist seems to be veering somewhere in that zone.
Where is the urge to impress, in these doodles? Small drawings with brush simply dipped in diluted color. I don’t see any textures, attempts to artistry, any skill oriented output. All that is visible here, are his illegible scribbles expressed unabashedly may be towards a greater psychological resilience. These water color impressions are some highly simplistic forms almost reminiscent of the artworks of the stone age cave man! Who had perhaps just discovered how to extract pigments from different types of fruits or leaves etc and then allowed himself to have fun with the different hues.
Anytime i have got to interact with this contemporary artist, Hemraj comes across with his characteristic joyous innocent tone unconsciously nudging the artist inside another to ,”Enjoy”, he implores!
If we were able to remember this simple tenet of life in all walks, we’d have acquired something so much more profound than just petty pleasure. Joy is a state far superior than what we have gotten stuck with: craving for pleasure. For joy entails freedom…which is where Hemrajs’ abstract emissions dwell.
Urge to pleasure
An escape from life’s
Banal moods
Joy ? ….an emersion
Into the moment
Fearlessly,
No matter how banal
How oppressive
It may be.
For they were
Mere illusions
Those impressions
And we got through!
Clearly his art at this point of abstraction, moves out of the zone of trying to prove anything…making any statement…reaching out for any pedestals. Sure-shot recipe to delving deep within the inward pools, away from all the frantic efforts to arrive.
Picasso had to have had a reason to have uttered these wise words “It took me 4 years to paint like Raphael but a life time to paint like a child.”
Article is written by Bhoomika Jain