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Lot Essay
On first glance, Arpita Singh's canvases may come across as stylistically naive and simple in subject matter. It is only after seeing several works that the underlying layers of meaning are discovered, thereby revealing her deeper political and social concerns. Her works need to be understood through a language of metaphors that communicate the artist's fears, dreams, concerns and aspirations.
Planes and automobiles are common elements that play a recurring role in her canvases. They represent the "comings and goings, the inevitability and implicit danger of separation and reunion, and the inescapability of death. She makes the past and faraway co-present, in the anticipation of separation, by travel or death." (S. Bean, 'Now, Then, Beyond, Time in India's Contemporary Art', Contemporary Indian Art, Other Realities, Mumbai, 2002, p. 54.) This "object substitution" is an essential part of her iconography.
Her technique adds to the overall message. She builds up layers of paint on the canvas, which she then applies and removes as part of the creative process. This in turn reveals and hides layers of meaning in her images and alludes to "unrevealed texts."
Planes and automobiles are common elements that play a recurring role in her canvases. They represent the "comings and goings, the inevitability and implicit danger of separation and reunion, and the inescapability of death. She makes the past and faraway co-present, in the anticipation of separation, by travel or death." (S. Bean, 'Now, Then, Beyond, Time in India's Contemporary Art', Contemporary Indian Art, Other Realities, Mumbai, 2002, p. 54.) This "object substitution" is an essential part of her iconography.
Her technique adds to the overall message. She builds up layers of paint on the canvas, which she then applies and removes as part of the creative process. This in turn reveals and hides layers of meaning in her images and alludes to "unrevealed texts."