An Artist with a Third Eye
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In this article we share Sid Ghosh’s thoughts on Sajal Patra as he goes on discovering the creations by this senior multi-talented artist who paints as well as does sculptures in a variety of mediums
When I met him way back in 1997 in “Delhi Institute of Arts”, I was completely unaware that one day I will be writing this article on him. Sometimes you meet a person who leaves a mark in your life, and today I must say that Sajal Sir is one of them. After college I met Sajal Sir off and on in events and exhibitions, but when I started exploring his work I realized his excellence.
Sajal Patra was born in Ranchi, but he prefers to call himself a man from eastern India. It is because he has had many a births in his formation as an artist. In spite of a non artistic family background he got his call to be an artist at a young age. He completed his BFA from Utkal University, Bhubaneswar and went on to complete his MFA in Khairagarh University, Chhattisgarh.
As a student, Patra had the opportunity to be closely associated with the Tribal life. He spent days to understand the Tribal art and in the process got a new dimension in his understanding of art. His learning of western and eastern art forms along with his exposure to Tribal art is perhaps the factors behind the uniqueness in his art.
Sajal Patra developed a personal identity with his art works. It is a determined attempt to hold on to things of the world, to quell his inner turbulence by concentrating on the solid facts of life, yet taking it beyond to a spiritual level. While describing his works he explained to me that what is seenby the naked eyes is unreal and it is only when we see it through our third eye we realize this fact. Such a beautiful concept I thought.
I went on exploring his works and found them to merge with spirituality which gives you a unique feeling of serenity. As I see his works I feel he found the true calling of his absolute self following the spiritual path. In his creations he examines the seeming contradictions of the unseen which is buried behind the ‘seen’ and which remains hidden to the ordinary vision, but becomes startlingly clear, when we can visualize the same at a bird eye view. This he calls ‘The Third Eye’!
When I spoke to him on his concepts he explained me through a very simple yet such a relevant example. He told me just as the sky does not meet the horizon in reality but when we see it looks otherwise similar when we see a rail track it seems to meet at a point. Is that a reality? He asked me. I started thinking and realized what seems to us is perception but when we use the third eye view we realize the truth. This is what he expresses in his paintings.
Sajal Patra has won many awards from the Odisha state Lalit Kala Academy, besides a research grant from the national Lalit Kala Academy. His works have been exhibited in major cities like Bhubaneswar, Nagpur, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Guwahati and Delhi.
I was in a series of conversation with him a year back which I share with you now, at a juncture when we all are fortunate to be a witness to another group exhibition by Wri Art where we will be able to experience his works once again, on 16th of March at Lokayata Art Gallery, Hauz Khas, New Delhi. I am surely going there, what about you all?
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