The Wonder of Women and Water

Gliding through the admiring buzz of visitors, collectors and critics like an allegory of tides, a white seashell neckpiece almost covering the front of her sea-green tunic, Jayasri Burman is happy to have created a union of primeval waters and the feminine principle.

- By MEDHA DUTTA YADAV

"My creativity is like water bubbling in a pot. You never know what might come forth out of it, or even what is exactly happening."

Artist Jayasri Burman talks about the female form and her many inspirations The Whisper of Water, The Song of Stars that opened to the buzz of cocktails and hors d'oeuvres, the camaraderie of cognoscenti and wide-eyed art parvenus is a tour de force of dissimilarity in multiplicity. The feminine form, 'Shakti' is the leitmotif of the show. Why are no men in her larger-than-life paintings? "That's not true," she protests. "Yes, I do paint only the female form, but isn't the male a part of the female too? Had Bramha, Vishnu, Maheshwar not been there, would there be Shakti? I come from West Bengal, where the festivals are largely centred on women-Durga, Kali, Lakshmi-and that's what appears on my canvas," says the 64-year-old artist. It's a dreamscape that she paints-filled with minute details. This time most of the detailing is with cowries and shells, beside the mermaids drawn from mythology, their tails twisted like interrogations of metaphors.