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Channelled towards change

Minna Philips' water colours depict ideas `from the inconsequential to the extreme physics of a movement'

PHOTO: VIPINCHANDRAN

STARK CANVASES Minna Philips at her show

`Lines of transference', a series of paintings by Minna Philips was on display at the Durbar Hall Art Gallery for three days, ending on Friday. Loosely segmented into three divisions, each one grappling with tremulous themes of change and inter and intra connectivity, the drawings are an attempt by the artist to probe the manner in which meanings are attributed to "seemingly detached events and places through accumulative experience." Her watercolours, which are jointly premised on `geometry in suspension', have just squares, rectangles and lines eliminating all identifiable objects from its canvas, "simply because I wanted to focus on light and form using colours which I have further constricted to the primary colours and their variations." And where there is light there is bound to be reflections and deflections, which you can observe in the blended shadow play of colour variations. "I chose water colours specifically because they have a life of their own. Like in life you have little control of its flow. The forms take shape as per chance," says Minna. And do they have underlying meanings wanting to see the light of day?

"I don't want to burden things with meanings We constantly adapt, change and transform. Our ability to adapt to different situations is the only constant. I am not seeking greater truths or questioning the how's and why's. I want to portray the temporality of situations, the here and now. That's why I am right now interested in site specific installations that only matter at that point of time and space. Once it is dismantled nothing remains except memories."

Likewise she doesn't carry the baggage of inspirations into the future. "I have no recurring motif or a running theme forever. What catches my fancy at a particular period becomes the resource for my pool of ideas." Therefore everything and anything carries equal significance to be portrayed on her stark canvases, "from the inconsequential to the extreme physics of a movement."

This is captured in her next set of drawings that are done with acrylic on canvas. They are impressionistic in nature - the outcome of registering personal hallmarks of her outer surroundings when travelling back and forth from office to home at Baltimore.

"They are mostly maps, geographical and cerebral." Like the photograph with graphite netted sketches titled Route No. 8: Stop I, is a photo of medium sized pebbles on which the netted stretch denotes the path to and fro. The next one `Stop II' just has impressions of zebra crossing, telephone wires and neon yellow parabolic arc strewn across capturing the myriad flickering images that one captures memorably in the psyche. The most outstanding and noteworthy thought however, is an interesting mental map titled Northbound that is a collection of 16 squared sketches that uses bright oranges coupled with black to "highlight perspectives and distance".

Expanse and space is also highlighted beautifully in a work that uses wind chimes in suspension to assert its significant existence. Then there is a twin work, titled `Silk Route' that traces the ancient cultural exchange route between China and India. "I was intrigued by cultural exchanges and whether they led to development or disintegration," says Minna. The third set of works are named after a cluster of stars, Pleiades, that use striking red, blue and yellow partitioning lines to form squares and rectangles that either come towards the viewer or draw inwards, depending on the distance from where viewed.

Minna, who studied arts in Stella Maris, Chennai, also has a Post Baccalaureate Certificate programme from Maryland Insitute of Arts, USA.

RAKHEE MOHAN

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