Silence, Please!

Viveek Sharma’s work occupies a space framed on the one hand by intensely painterly acts of looking, seeing and recording, and on the other by exploration into social realities and philosophies that constitute contemporary life.

Portraits of Sadhus find a central place in the current compilation, each face captured in a distinct moment of emotional introspection. The exploration of spirituality and its manifestation in animate and inanimate entities, spaces and places has been a recurring preoccupation with Sharma. A recent series of work was dedicated entirely to portraits of Sadhus – spiritual seekers who give up earthly comforts for an esoteric understanding of life’s purpose. They are anonymous and yet recognizable; they have individual features and yet represent their entire community. Their faces, lined with wrinkles and coated with sacred powders – saffron, vermillion, sandal, lime – crowned with straggling matted hair, reflect wisdom, experience and controlled sentiment. Indian religious tradition reveres these ascetics who seek to transcend the physical world and meditate on the wellbeing and balance of the universe. Followers of different sects pursue varied processes and rituals aimed towards a mystic release. Many are wanderers, journeying on an eternal pilgrimage and drawn always to ancient centres of sacred energy. Lina Vincent Sunish, Art Historian.