Malavika Rajnarayan’s recent works, A Song in Asides, is a series of postcard-sized watercolours that have emerged from her travel and lived experiences. Each work translates into a line of poetry on paper and spills into larger, interconnected narratives that are stitched together by strokes of kanthaembroidery. The works come together as surreal snippets, mirroring the reality of a dream. Characters find themselves arrested in solitude, distinct from loneliness, conjuring an introspective gaze in the light that seeps through the jaalis. The figures, as though detached from the puppetry at the hands of the artist, are caught in media res, in a free fall, perhaps moving towards another story.
Malavika embraces the smaller and meaningful things in life and her watercolours, like travel companions, empower her to work with a spontaneous lucidity. Owing to their portability, each work uses a distinct inspiration but is held together by common experiences of existence. Like a side song, the works started in self-reflection and over time have developed music of their own to appreciate and acknowledge the essence of routine. A subtle enquiry furthers into the ecological realities and psychological quiddities that are woven into these scapes. In the ever-changing setting, Malavika embraces the qualities of small things- gestures, words, qualities and love- often unseen and ignored, that make this world habitable.
Text@Chhavi Jain