Strokes of Innocence
Flip through this very newspaper, and you realize how depressing the information age can be. Page after page of conflicts, disasters and crime, “it’s like we’ve become slaves of the media; of bad news. We are scared,” says Jayasri Burman.
Hailing from the culture rich city of Kolkata, India, Burman is a painter famous for her bold themes with strong mythic elements and female presence. But beyond her brightly colored hues, exotic characters and whimsically constructed figures, she has a deeper message—that happiness and innocence are also realities of life.
India has been taking over international media headlines in recent years, for the horrific rape incidents that seem to be happening daily across the country, and it was an issue I couldn’t help but bring up with her. “It really pains me to see this,” says Burman. She then told me a story of a woman she had met a few years earlier, who had been cast out of both her maiden and husband’s family after she was widowed. In the years to come, she would take refuge in a friend’s salon back room by night, and raise her children at the nearby park, in rain or shine, by day. “The years were hard, on her, but now, her children have all become very successful, and she even has her own house,” says Burman, smiling. “Yes, bad things happen, but we also need to consider the success stories—the ones that give us hope, which are also realities in life.”
Along with optimism, a childlike nature is also essential to Burman’s art. “To me, folk art is very hard to do, because one has to be very innocent to be able to express such complex and profound topics, with a single line. It comes from the heart,” she says. “My environment is what inspires me,” she adds. “My paintings are so Indian because I am Indian—I cannot paint things that are not in my surroundings—those things are not me.”
For Burman, art is supposed to be simple and not over thought. She paints whatever her soul guides her to.
And indeed, it seems so. At the end of our interview, she casually flipped through my notebook, took out her felt tip marker, and began drawing lines across the page. Within minutes, she had conjured up a beautiful sketch of a woman figure with ducks for arms, floating among a bed of clouds. A souvenir of her message I’m sure I will be keeping of years to come.
Jayasri Burman’s first exhibition “Gazing into the Myth” will only last from 20-23 March, 2014 at the Hong Kong Visual Arts Centre, so catch it while you still can.
Hong Kong Visual Arts Centre, 7A Kennedy Road, Central, Hong Kong, 2521 3008, www.lcsd.gov.hk
A version of this article first appeared in the Friday, 21 March, 2014 issue of The Standard Hong Kong.
Photo credits to The Standard.