Quiet flow the rivers
Mona's solo exhibition at Bengal Gallery
Fayza Haq
Mona Mahmud Chowdhury's solo exhibition Rivers and the Flow of Life was opened at the Bengal Gallery yesterday. In Mona's chalk pastels one finds a surreal world where the artist sees rivers as a part of life. Her world consists of humans and nature with a prominence of animals like cats along with fish. Clumps of trees and tangles of kites are also included in the vision. Boats and clouds are seen too. And through them all a blue-green river flows. Trained in Kolkata and London, Mona brings something new and fresh to the art scene with her quaint figures and buoyant colours. Mona works from her sketches but most often she develops her colours, lines and motifs as she goes along with her chalk pastel on paper. She is influenced by Paul Klee and admires local artists like Rokeya Sultana and Farida Zaman. She is also fond of Monirul Islam, Gonesh Payen and Gonesh Halui. Going over the differences between education in Kolkata and London, she says that there is experimentation along with academic work right from the outset in London whereas in Kolkata there is more of study work. "What the English art students do during their 1st year, students in Kolkata do in the 5th or 6th year," she says. Mona initially worked in oil and mixed media but in the recent works she has moved on to chalk pastel. Along with these are some prints. She finds it easy to blend the chalk pastel and it gives the same effect as oil or acrylic. She says that her husband and the rest of her family encourage her greatly, without which she could not have progressed so far with two major solos and several joint ventures. In Nocturnal and Daylight Threads, one finds a cityscape with people in numerous windows. This is dominated by a large tree with massive sprays of leaves that are evenly dotted. The sky remains blue and pink. Against this framework are two children flying kites. The thread of Time Flow has more of the high-rises and the sky. Here too, kites play an important part of Mona's imagination as she associates it with happy childhood. A Stream Becomes a River has the flowing of a river in different directions with the inclusion of the sky and clouds. A peering child's face animates the composition. Bird's Nest has trees, one looking like a lamb that is dotted with reds and oranges. Inside the shape are tiny motifs of humans. The trees are surrounded with swirls of orange and yellow The artist looks at the scenes from the inside, feeling its moods and rhythms. The colours and forms appear expressionistic as she focuses closely on the psychology of her characters. Very often there is a zigzag worm-like motif going through her work and this ushers in the river. Each work has an individual story of joy and sorrow. The exhibition, which ends on July 15th, is sure to fascinate art enthusiasts.
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