A meditative metamorphosis

Between the noisy exertions of the vacuum cleaner on the matte black carpet and the gentle hubbub of artful conversation at the LTC Gallery of New Delhi’s Bikaner House on a late spring evening, ‘The Quiet Interlude’ came into its own. Reflective canvases beckoned, time expanded and contracted, and the solitary viewer got drawn into the Yantra and Tantra, the yin and yang, and the madhya point of stillness so central to Trishla Jain’s artistic endeavour.

ORDER IN CHAOS

Jain’s initial works were colourful expressions of playful whimsy, but her latest canvases reveal a confident maturity, a meditative metamorphosis — a conscious progression to seeking deeper meanings. Which is why the period of calm, the emptiness before the formal opening of Jain’s exhibition was so central to understanding the language of her compositions, from the comforting structured grid patterns of Yantra to the unbound, infinitive universe of Tantra.Those who read the introduction at the entrance were better primed to understand than those who did not. “Every line, dot and grid in Yantra is representative of the inhalation and exhalation of the artist’s breath. The centre is clearly determined within the structure until, with a slow release, the breath is let go, in Tantra. By adjusting to the openness of Tantra and observing it with time, the breath gradually returns, to point out symmetry and order even in its chaos.”

POOLS OF QUIETUDE
This eupnoeic rhythm is as essential to Jain’s oeuvre as to quotidian life, if only people take the time to consider it. But for that, we need to slow down, breathe deeply and let the mind wander in that suspended space between breaths.

As the gallery gradually filled up and a kind of velvet noise pervaded, the canvases became magnetic pools of quietude, drawing individuals away from the crowd for moments of solitary close examination, if not introspection.

“For a form to be defined it requires space,” advises the introduction. “It is only when there is distance that one begins to observe patterns, grids and structures. On coming too close, the detail takes over but then pushes the viewer back to create a space that allows one to be absorbed into the painting’s entirety.”

As the evening drew to a close, that quiet interlude returned, offering another chance to contemplate in Jain’s works, the duality of our lives, wherein the structured and the logical alternate endlessly with the discursive and boundless.

‘The Quiet Interlude’ is on till April 8 at LTC Gallery, Bikaner House, New Delhi