What is it about art that makes one interested in it? Whether it is the colours, the story, the simple strokes of a paintbrush, the figures, gestures, perspective or desire, irony, love, affection, hate, and every remote emotion one goes through as a human. Has one ever thought, “I can’t interpret art? I don’t think I have the right mindset to view it as something which might depict my own conscious?”

As the political activist artist, Banksy said, “Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable” the perspective of the lens through which one views an art is sometimes a call from the subconscious. There have been a lot of artists who have been known to make one feel disturbed through their art; maybe that’s just them trying to connect us to ourselves.

Surrealism is one of the movements that impacted the representation of art to a large extent, making people uncomfortable with unnerving and illogical scenes in the art for a person’s conscious mind to express itself. Using the artwork of one of the admirers of Zdzisław Beksiński. KumarAD depicts surrealism with his colours, unlike Beksiński’s monochromatic use. “There are various subjects in his art that often represent death and different symbolism, surreal but often very dark, creatures with long legs and spider-like beings. Everything blends together and often leaves little difference between the subject and the environment as if everything is bleeding in each other. The blending effects just suck you in.”

Studying his work, KumarAD had this planned idea of taking inspiration from Beksiński’s work for this art piece putting his spin on it. When asked what he interprets his finished work as, he wanted to present it using massive structures, some creatures and atmospheric quality, making one feel that the art is sucking them in and you become a part of it. Having different meanings in mind regarding his art, he wanted it to be open for interpretation by everyone.

When asked, one of the viewers described it as a ritual, something ominous and yet wanted to be a part of it, witness it as if they were hypnotised. On a second glance, the use of colours and the contrast gave them a touch of reality they wanted to be a part of or wanted to experience.

Being interested in studying psychedelics and other drugs, the new knowledge played an exciting role in choosing the subjects and themes for his artwork. Looking at the same thing from a different perspective and using a new topic due to curiosity about psychology and mental disorders, KumarAD came up with this subject. The intention was to portray a person who has had a psychedelic experience and has now left behind all the burdens from his past. He had a moment of clarity and left the baggage of humanity and understood his reality, even the baggage of his own identity, which left him bare. The world he is in is not concerned with mundane notions of the human world, allowing the skeleton to be in harmony. On the second glance of his artwork, after a long while, he had his epiphany moment, “It was saying hello to me, it looked at me saying ‘this man is high’, and the art described the same. The man walking in the forest is also high and has lost his skin which is symbolic, meaning he has lost the identity which the human world gives him, and now he is in the world of symbolism. This felt like a greeting from my unconscious, telling me that this is also your reality, this is you. I did not realise it at first but understood it after being in the same state of the art. I was the one who created it”.

Catching one of the viewer’s attention was how the skeleton represented their bizarre side of personality. The background with triangles, mushrooms, and trees gives the skeleton its place to exist in its form. The second time they looked at it, it looked back at them, giving them a sense of connection through its blue eyes. For one, it represented innocence, we are all skeletons, and the unconscious resides.

To another, the skeleton didn’t seem like a human one, as if it tells us that in the realm different from the one you live in, there is another place where you belong, and that’s your most natural form. In this form, your skeleton itself is not human, you are just bones stuck together, different and imperfect, yet nobody looks at your imperfections. Nobody cares if your structure is perfect, and that’s what one wants to be in this real world. The shapes and mushrooms in the background are your reality, attached to you, attracted to you and would never be apart from you, something hard to accept and yet something one needs to carry.

In the complex terrain of art, how one sees is how one perceives. When met with art, a tangled mind has the power to make you feel things. It wraps you around your consciousness, dragging you in depths through the layers and colours of your being like that you see on the canvas, which was once blank.

I am a law student and a content writer here, who appreciates harmless sarcasm. I write about whatever my brainbox (or yours) fancies. Writing something other than research papers and assignments makes life a little less chaotic, for it gives a sense of unwinding your emotions. I like exploring and talking over ideas and thoughts (and an open political discussion).

Email-kyoshita58@gmail.com

LinkedIn-https://www.linkedin.com/in/yoshita-kumar-6a735019a