It is difficult to explain how a print is made to someone who has never tried it, and one can’t really understand the technique by simply looking at it.[break]
Nonetheless, given that, there are hardly a handful of printmakers in the small Nepali art community.
So the ongoing print exhibition at the Kathmandu Contemporary Art Center (KCAC) comes as a wonderful opportunity for artists and art lovers to look at a range of prints as well as to appreciate them.
“These works were made while I was a Masters student of Printmaking at the University of Development Alternative (UODA) in Bangladesh,” shares Saurganga Darshandhari, 29, about her first solo exhibition titled “A Printmaker’s Feelings” The exhibition opened on Sunday, February 21.
The 40 works on exhibit display a commendable range of printmaking techniques, from intaglios and reliefs to lithographs, all of which Saurganga learnt to do during her two-year MFA program.
“The first technique I learnt was dry point, that’s why I’m very attached to it,” she comments at her extensive use of the process.
Dry point refers to the technique of printmaking when an etching needle is used to make marks on a metal plate without the use of acid to bite into the plate. The pointed needle leaves deep cuts, and therefore, after inked and transferred onto wet paper, creates dark, heavy bold marks.
In her, "Tundal" series, Saurganga’s dry point marks are sparse, spontaneous, and loose, yet just enough for us to understand the subject she is portraying. The series explores the artist’s concept of what modern-day tundals or temple struts would have looked like.
“Because Bangladesh is a Muslim country, I made prints showing traditional Hindu temple tundals and juxtaposed them with images of modern women,” shares Saurganga, who intended to make 15 different prints but ended at number nine.
Her images of short-skirted and gown-clad stylish women of today pose upon pedestals of cars right next to bare-breasted women, in “Tribhanga” postures, standing upon mythical beasts. Besides the vertical composition, a common background links the prints in “Tundal.”
“I’ve used two separate plates for each one; the colored one, however, is the same in all of them,” points out the young artist.
One realizes the charm of this particular series only after looking at other prints by Saurganga, which provide evidence of her deft skills as a printmaker. It requires much patience as well as planning in order to obtain the variety of grays that she has successfully brought out in the print "Adhiveshan Mandala".
“Sometimes, missing a single step in the process can be quite regrettable,” she shares with a smile. The rigid intricate details of her aquatints are quite a contrast from her almost playful lines of the tundals. But the truth is that this artist can carry both techniques equally well.
“I don’t plan out the subject matter of my works, and nothing is fixed,” says Saurganga, the receiver of UODA’s Best Media Award 2008.
The other works to watch out for at this exhibition are “Cow Bell”—sets of woodcut prints made from wooden cowbells, and etching “Burka II”—made by using iron dust on brown paper.
The exhibition will remain open till March 10 at KCAC in Jhamsikhel, Lalitpur.
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