Ambubhai Rathwa

                My works weave a web between daily life and fantasy. I see myself as a dreamer who lives in his fantasies. I try to bridge the gap between my fantasies and the real world through my work. In canvases express space, emotions, desire and the objects of my dreams.

                Each of my works tells a story, an incident that has its own space and the objects in the frame allow me to express these incidents, it is the door to my feelings and memories of my fantasies. When my day begins with sunshine I feel my memories of these dreams are still with me and they walk along with me. I use layers of oil colours on canvas where these layers are my collective memories. I invite people who want to know me or understand me to be part of my fantasy… Enter my world through my canvas!

Sanjay Barot

                My recent works show my search for an inner self. These works express my day-to -day life\\\'s experiences and realities. My subject gives me the belief and the faith and to find myself, one that makes me complete and protects me like a security blanket.

Different people have planted their roots in us and because of that the roots that are growing within us does not represent the real us. Until those roots planted by others are there in us, they will not let us grow as our real selves. Even though these roots are problematic for our actual growth we have accepted them as ours and have made our way to walk in this world with these roots. But that is not our independence, not our freedom. It is a form of slavery that has erected a mental wall before us.

 

In one of my work, titled \\\"Finding Self\\\" I’ve tried to depict this sense of unease with others roots growing within us. In another work I have depicted a man standing with his back to the viewer. This man has turned his back on the world in order to known his inner qualities, and finds the self. In this process he has rejected the roots that others have planted within him. He has cut himself off from the objects and ideas that others have planted within him. In doing this he has fond his real face.

In yet another work I have created a half-man half-tortoise with superpowers. His back is made of the hard tortoise shell and is strong and resilient. Though he moves slowly and steadily he can cover long distances. This metaphor for slow and steady progress also bespeaks resilience and inner growth.

Mankind is always afraid of what may surprise him from behind, his back is vulnerable and there rest his greatest fears. While he already grapples with situations that approach him from the front one that he can see and deal with head on. However the attack from behind catches him unaware. The tortoise man is a solution to this insecurity and he has been made secure and strong with the super power invested in him. The different textures of his shell are metaphors for the different areas of life

The landscape of life is incomplete whether it is the trees or the landscape around. This incompleteness stands for the unconscious and fractured side of the tortoise-man. Like a jigsaw puzzles he attempts to join these fractured parts to make a whole picture in his mind and lead a holistic life.