Dr. Suneel Mehmi (amateur artist and bedtime doodler Insta: @anontyger)
All of the artists and some of their works here:
https://www.kings-foundation.org/school-of-traditional-arts/degreeshow2024
An introduction to some of the accomplished artists and their work at the Garrison Chapel Degree Show 2024 – The King’s foundation school of traditional arts.
Sangeeta Singh
https://www.kings-foundation.org/school-of-traditional-arts/degree-show-2024/sangeeta/singh
‘… for the graduation works this year, I have chosen to delve into distinctive yet harmonious realms of Indian miniature painting, and Siyahi Qalum (Pen and Ink paintings).’
Sangeeta told me that she mixes her own minerals to make the delicate and sophisticated hues in her artwork. Each one is therefore absolutely unique (and perhaps inimitable) in its colouration.
The piece that struck me the most was ‘Phoenix – the Symbol of Hope’. As Sangeeta explained, the bird, done in shell gold and white gold, signified prosperity coming to the impoverished. Especially the mothers in such places of hard destitution.
What drew my attention to the piece was the peacock feathers in the phoenix and the borrowings of the Chinese art style throughout. Truly, the peacock is an opulent creature and does stand for wealth in Asian cultures, as Sangeeta explained to me. But the peacock is also the national bird of India. Could Sangeeta have been trying to share the wealth that is India with the world in this one?
Her pen and ink work in ‘The Elephant’ is exceptional, painstaking, and she must be proud of this piece because she has it on her business card. The eye of the elephant is my favourite detail in this painting, besides the wrinkles that suggest age – because the eye is so beautiful and soulful. It breathes the life into the piece with the dainty corner which is reminiscent of Indian beauties such as Radha in Indian miniatures. She has explained that the pen and ink technique is one of her favourites. When she gave me the business card, I joked with her in Hindi: ‘Shiva has cut off the head of Ganesha and given it to me’. She had just told me that she is interested in the sacred animals of Asian mythology – as can be seen in the phoenix image.
Anastasiya Levashova
https://www.kings-foundation.org/school-of-traditional-arts/degree-show-2024/anastasiya/levashova
@char.even
Geometric patterns and tiles in rich, warm brown colours and gold was the general aesthetic of this artist. Sophisticated and mature in ambience, the works also suggested luxury with the ideas of chocolate and coffee swirling around in my head.
The patterning of stars and hexagons in a rectangular frame was one of my favourite pieces (see the artist’s Instagram account, given above). It was called ‘Wishing Star’ and I wondered what yearnings the artist had in mind when she made it. I would suggest a desire for order and control in these regularised forms – amidst the chaos of this earthly life and these cares and troubles. Perhaps it is that order that attracts us artists to art.
I also liked the Wellspring, 2024, which signifies someone that ‘selflessly radiates their energy to the world’. It was interesting that some of the tiles were left blank in this piece – three of them to be precise. I wondered at the meaning. Were such people such a rarity?
Elijah Turrell
https://www.holywellicons.com/
https://www.kings-foundation.org/school-of-traditional-arts/degree-show-2024/elijah/turrell
‘New works inspired by ancient traditions’ – the art of faith and Christian spirituality.
‘Hebrews IX’ is an exceptional work which combines beautiful calligraphy with beautiful patterning and framing. The aesthetic is Medieval, a perspective in which, in contrast to the present, religion is dominant above secular power and authority. And again, in contrast to contemporary artwork, in which the content is sometimes thin to non-existent and many times hopelessly trivial and ephemeral, here we have the foregrounding of the words of holy scripture which the believer must imagine as eternal, timeless, awesomely powerful and rich. It makes a refreshing change – even for a non-believer.
Because art is something that you have to believe in. Like a religion. Your ideas are something that you have to believe in like a religion too. Without that, what are these mere empty forms and vessels that many are content to fabricate?
An art that you have to respect.
Thomas Codol
https://www.kings-foundation.org/school-of-traditional-arts/degree-show-2024/thomas/codol
Thomas is an extremely charming and clear narrator of his work and his influences. What he calls ‘Curvilinear geometry’ as experiments in form and tiling he told me derived from Islamic geometry, although in places he has married Hindu iconography into the designs.
The forms can be energetic, spiritual, intricate. One constant theme that runs through the work is the silk thread because the silk routes created such a culture about them. Many of the works have striking visual similarities with lace and doilies, some with mandalas.
He draws with objects like a set of compasses and cuts out the designs with a scalpel.
The experiments with three dimensional form were breathtaking, particularly in the dome that he created. The dome excited me. I could see the potential for such places as an immersive art experience, perhaps a direction in interior design. Such a spiritual space inside with these lighted three dimensional objects that appear as a created artist’s universe.
Lacey Ferri
https://www.kings-foundation.org/school-of-traditional-arts/degree-show-2024/laceyferri
https://www.instagram.com/lacey.ferri/
https://laceyferri.mystrikingly.com/
What most impressed me in this artist’s work was:
Signal (my joy) – | 49x75cm | Handmade watercolour and natural watercolour on stained paper
There was a beautiful Indian aesthetic to this work with the perfect forms of the patterning, the sinuous lines and then the vivid, saturated colours. The fluency of the piece and its effect was absolutely amazing. As a representation of joy, it was immaculate, intriguing, immersive. Part of the magic of the piece is the interweaving of the elements which creates relationships between the different forms and render a fascinating complexity. The rectangular frame which bounds but which is also transcended suggests a joy beyond and within the limit. Not all of the piece is abstract – there seems to be a representation of the sun within a circle – the joy burning with energy within, radiating out of the body and filling it with light. Emotion caught within art perfectly.
Dr. Halleh Mortazavi
https://www.kings-foundation.org/school-of-traditional-arts/degree-show-2024/halleh/mortazavi
https://www.instagram.com/Hallehmortazavi.art/
What interested me most in this artist that works in Persian miniatures was the way that she integrated flowers into her work, including in calligraphy. There were very intricate miniature designs which displayed the talent needed for miniature painting: absolute concentration, the ability to render impeccable details and the skills of arrangement and adorning. My favourite piece was the rendition of the Bismillah in floral art. Flowers offered to god in the way that we offer them in India, such as the hibiscus to the Dark Mother, Maa Kaali.
Simona Bosco Schiavone
https://www.kings-foundation.org/school-of-traditional-arts/degree-show-2024/simona/schiavone
@simonae_bosco
Versatility. Analysis of form in ‘Monad Generating the Six’ in gold against black which looked very stylish and modernist. The pieces about the elements including ‘Air’ and ‘Earth’ were a unique combination of landscape art with geometry. An investigation of the styles of art in the combination in a whole, an exercise of comparison, contrast and enriching from both spheres.
Marina Featherstone
https://www.kings-foundation.org/school-of-traditional-arts/degree-show-2024/marina/featherstone
https://www.instagram.com/marina_featherstone_art
Beautifully fluid and textured ceramic tiles with a range of plant derived motifs. I myself love to draw these things too and invent my own designs, but this artist sees herself as the custodian of a tradition. The move to what has traditionally been regarded as mere ornamentation and to make it central is the idea to take what has been marginalised and distanced from meaning and to make it meaningful, to make it the focus. The intent is revolutionary – and just. Because what is on the periphery is sometimes what is most beautiful and most precious – especially in an age in which plant life and its survival is the key to the future.
Datti Kaur
https://www.kings-foundation.org/school-of-traditional-arts/degree-show-2024/datti/kaur
A mastery of the beautiful garden, with artwork inspired by Indian classical music. A particularly interesting piece of work was the beautiful doors which were portals into different landscapes. Vivid colouration and wonderful detail in these energetic works.
Roopini Venkatasubraman
@abhya_sata
@sai_krishnarpanam
Images of love spectacularly rendered in the forms of Krishna and Radha, the divine couple, the essence of love. I am named after Krishna, the Hindu god of love. The sacred geometries of India were inspiring. This artist was one of my favourites because she connected me to my origins and our traditions as Indians so much. My favourite piece, flooded with light, was ‘Divine Love in Light’, an
Indian miniature styled stained glass panel with metal oxide and silver stain, soldered with lead. The Divine couple are shown here amongst the flowers and trees in a shower of gold. Exquisitely beautiful, an image of love. Krishna’s Radha and Radha’s Krishna:
he kisses her earring with his hands
he kisses her face with his eyes
from a god the goddess turns her face
still he aims at closeness
still he aims at the kiss
for radha is the gold light of love
that energises the eyes
that enchants the one called krishna
that enchants this solemn world
diary of a lone man 