Dhruvi Acharya's solo show "ONE LIFE ON EARTH"
was on view at Chemould Prescott Road in Mumbai and Nature Morte in New Delhi in fall 2008.

above: AIRFARE, 5.5 x 16 feet, synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 2008

above: AIR FAIR, 23 panel painting, 7.4 x 14 feet

above: "Growth", 48 x 96 inches, synthtic polymer paint on canvas, 2007

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about "ONE LIFE ON EARTH"

Dhruvi Acharya’s ‘One Life On Earth’, like her previous work, is rooted in personal experience. In the current set of acrylics and watercolours, however, she erases all biographical reference, offering instead a series of meditations on vital political issues of our time: the continuing denial of equality to women; the burgeoning cult of violence across the globe; and the rapid deterioration of the environment.

She eagerly devoured Amar Chitra Kathas as a child, and now returns to them in a critical frame of mind, uncovering the sexism ingrained in these comics and, by extension, in the myths and folk tales they retell. Moving to the sound effects that punctuate her boys’ favourite superhero stories, she finds them less like absurd caricatures than gruesome premonitions.

The respiratory ailments so common in cities today and a bout of breathlessness she suffered are points of departure for an engagement with environmental crises. In considering the preciousness of clean air, she envisions a world entirely depleted of oxygen. Within this dystopia, some humans adapt by growing botanical extensions which allow them to breathe, while the rest, dependent on the mutants, become buyers, scavengers, hunters and harvesters.

The surfaces of these images are deceptively placid. On closer examination, they reveal a complex, layered and precise application of paint; figuration which synthesises varied influences, from Indian miniatures through cartoons to contemporary advertising; and a finely ambivalent delineation of victims and oppressors that calls attention to our complicity in the disasters threatening our existence.

GIRISH SHAHANE

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VIEW RECENT PRESS ABOUT THIS SHOW: see REVIEWS

Indian Express, 22 July, 2008
Mint, 2 August, 2008
HT Cafe, 5 August, 2008
The Age Mumbai, Asian Age, 6 August, 2008
Bombay Times, Times of India, 7 August, 2008
DNA After Hrs, 13 August, 2008

Mans World, August 2008
Tehelka, 23 August 2008

L'Officielle August 2008
Elle, August 2008

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The whimsical, hi ghly detailed and layered painting continues in Dhruvi Acharya's upcoming show, "One Life On Earth." In this set of paintings, Dhruvi has created a breathtaking "breathless" landscape of the people who inhabit her world. On immediate viewing, the surface of her work is visually uniform, and a marriage of balanced colors and well-drawn images. Go closer, and a world, intricately woven, minutely detailed, and emotionally observed, opens up completely new psychological and visual dimensions. The scale of Dhruvi's work has also shifted in this show: without compromising on the infinitesimal detailing, the sizes of the works have increased to take up entire walls.

In "Air Fair" (above) a 14-foot, 23 panel painting, Dhruvi has composed a mock-advertisement "selling" oxygen, wind, and fresh-air, juxtaposed with images of the consumers of this very advertisement. This large multi-paneled painting brings together Dhruvi's latent interests: contemporary street art, typography, design, the use of language, comic books, and advertising.

below: AIR FAIR, detail of one of 23 panels

In yet another large format work, (16 foot work in four panels) titled, "Airfare" the war for air is between the "haves" and the "have-nots"; in this case the haves being the mutated protagonists growing their own plants atop their heads, whereas the have-nots being human beings, carrying flower-breath-packs (as oxygen bags), clawed and armed to fight for air from the "poor" haves… A futuristic comic- book view into times to come.....

below: AIRFARE, detail of a small section of one of the 4 panels

A series of 3 paintings titled "Words" (below), have an interesting continuity to earlier works. While the earlier paintings had the figure most often represented by an empty speech bubble, in these works, Dhruvi has inverted the idea, wherein the words in the speech bubbles are clearly in place, the people missing. The story complete within the span of the canvas, it provokes the viewer into figuring out the tale, by simply reading the text. Actual folk tales that once again represent suppression of women is the subject matter of this body of work

below: "Words III", 48x48 inches, mixed media on canvas, 2007

above: "Trunk", 36x 36 inches, synthtic polymer paint on canvas, 2007

above: "Ear", 24 x 24 inches, synthtic polymer paint on canvas, 2007

above: "The Birth", 12 x 12 inches, synthtic polymer paint on panel, 2007

above: "Fat", 12x12 inches, synthtic polymer paint on panel, 2007

above: "Aman at 14", 24 x 18 inches, watercolour on paper, 2007



above: "Goddess I", 24 x 18 inches, watercolour on paper, 2007

above: "Woman wirth Broken Tail" 6 x 4 inches, watercolour on paper, 2007



above: "Woman with Batboy"12 x 9 inches, watercolour on paper, 2007