Drawing on reality

Kolkata-based artist Eleena Banik has had several close encounters with violence over the past few years — from the violence at Nandigram in West Bengal to the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai. So,when an exhibition of her latest works,“My Voice against Violence against Women”,opens at the Visual Arts Gallery,Indian Habitat Centre,on Wednesday,the paintings will be her comment on terrorism witnessed first hand,and its worst victims— women.

“The paintings are a response to the violence around us. I stayed in an old building behind the Taj hotel and the terrorist attack on the landmark hotel was a traumatic experience. Nandigram,where political violence surrounding the Left Front government’s decision to use agricultural land for industry took on nightmarish proportions and scarred my psyche. And the women,daughters,sisters and wives of poor farmers bore the worst brunt of the violence,” says Banik,37. The paintings comprise defiant strokes with disturbing,though meticulous,details in the severed human heads and lurid colours. Nandigram,an oil on canvas shows men holding guns against women,with a patch of green amid the naked human figures being the only reminder that the bloodshed was for land.

Another painting called Death of Son shows a woman in black carrying the body of a boy. “That’s Rizwanur Rahman,a poor boy who was allegedly killed for daring to fall in love with the daughter of a rich businessman,” says Banik. Even as the rest of Bengal erupted in anger and protests over the Rizwanur death case,Banik chose to focus on the private grief of his mother. Maybe,this has something to do with the fact that as a young child,Banik was exposed to violence in her family. “One Christmas morning,my father was attacked. They had stabbed him on the hand. I went to visit him in the hospital the next day,” she recalls.

The 60 paintings and five bronze sculptures on display are a mixture on new and old,some dating back to her days when she studied in Shantiniketan,the art hub of West Bengal. The works range from Rs 10,000 to Rs 3 lakh.

The exhibition is on till June 30. Contact 09830294520