On a pleasant winter evening, two years back, in my first visit to Santiniketan, I was taken by a young artist-couple to their bestie's home-studio in the hood – 'Paper Nest'. The artist welcomed me warmly to her abode, and over a specially made 'jhalmuri' and cha adda, shared with me the journey of her evolving passion for papermaking. It was fascinating to hear both her story and the enumeration of the processes involved in transforming fibre (of many different kinds) into paper.
I've followed her journey since... and was thus delighted to be able to visit her debut solo this evening at Emami Art. To witness the fruition of a long journey!
All the five elements come together in Ruma’s practice; in this solo, she also makes them the subject of her artworks – paying homage to that which enables her work. River, cloud, land/landscape, burnt detritus emerge in them out of wisps of fibre, itself the product of organic waste.
This is Nature’s representation radically reimagined, with nature itself inscribed on paper.
PS: All the works are unsigned.
And the curatorial note is one of the most beautiful I've read in a while!