There is no refuge from memory and remorse in this world. The spirits of our foolish deeds haunt us, with or without repentance.
— Canadian novelist Gilbert Parker

A fascinating word indeed. Memory — a bridge that connects the present to the past. Some sweet, some painful, some that hold on to us no matter how hard we try to let go, and some so beautiful that we never want to let go. While memories take us back to a period now locked in the sands of time, dreams beckon us to a future whose seeds we are sowing at present. The human brain beautifully accommodates both.
In his solo show titled Marks and Markers, Kolkata-based artist Samindranath Majumdar looks back to his own reminiscence and experiences using abstraction and multiple layers of paint to redefine space and memory. Born in 1966 to an illustrious family of writers, educators and painters, Majumdar received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in visual arts from Rabindra Bharti University, Kolkata, after completing an undergraduate degree in science at Kolkata University.
For the 47-year-old artist, memories unfold in a series of unstable visuals. Born in a Kolkata suburb, he grew up amidst greenery which was slowly being replaced by the growing space of a crowded metropolis. He recalls being enamoured by the various jute mills situated on his way to school. Observing the imposing, and sometimes crumbling buildings on a daily basis left its mark on his memory, to surface many years later in his canvases. Then there was the Ganges with its wide, open ghats, the calm waters and an unending horizon that also left an impression on a young Majumdar.
His works tread the fine line between completely abstract and representative forms, calling into question the role that narrative threads play in experiencing art. “Abstraction to me is a quality which is present in every piece of art worth its name. In some of my works, you can very well identify some representational elements. But, these elements have actually been reinterpreted here. I change their external retino-visual reality into a lyrical, existential, poetic, prosaic, non-dramatic, gestural identity.”
Speaking about the title of his show, Majumdar explains, “Marks are made by markers, but the marks also define the markers. This show is all about memory and history. Memories are like marks, which have been created by a particular time and at the same time eroded by time, too. So ‘time’ is the marker here, a personal/private time and time as an eternal flow. Marks are then the signs of my intrinsic unconscious self and these could be read also as conscious choices from my socio-private experiences, mediated by time.”
In his paintings, a silvery dreaminess pervades the scene. His paintings look like shimmering forms in red and blue which seemingly dissolve into the silver smoke of his works. In one silkscreen work titled The Broken Wing, the wings of an old aircraft lie on a wheat field like a textured background where it slowly transforms into a sapphire obelisk. In yet another work, puffs of cumulo-nimbus clouds float over a softly outlined skyscraper. Solid triangles bounce against the clouds in a work with a strong cubist flavour. The triangles become a block of mysteriously brown cheese with what looks like the head of a fish with citrine eyes in another work. The colours are subdued and well balanced and the forms organised, giving some of the abstract still lives a brooding magnetism that is quite rare.
For Majumdar, memory is a subject and not a recollecting device. “In my works, I try to imitate the process of memory during the very process of painting. I paint and I wash/wipe it off and I continue the same process over and over again till I finish. Thus, the process itself becomes the narrator. In my painted images there are many signs that signify time. For example, I have used undefined scripts, Rosetta stones, old buildings and the like. To me memories are departures too, in a certain sense, small patterns of exile which speak of words and worlds left behind. But, the funny part is these are both ‘here’ as well as ‘there’, carried as an undertone throughout our lives. It is this bipolarity of memory, this presence of past-ness that has intrigued me time and again. This interface of submergence and surfacing creates an interesting dialectic in my paintings. My displacement from the suburbs to the city claims centrality here,” he says.
While most of Majumdar’s paintings are landscapes, they are not sheer landscapes. “I use the pattern of landscape as a correlative of my journey towards the unknown; I use landscape space as a metaphor, a sign holder, a bearer of marks of time,” he adds.
Majumdar has been working with acrylic and other medium on canvas and paper for the last 25 years. So, what does he like about stains and marks from multiple washes? “At times, I have tried to create some kind of a porous surface on canvas. You see, the way in which a porous surface receives and retains stains and marks can be related, as a parallel visual vocabulary, to personal/historical memory. This surface can be eroded with aggressive abrasion and yet retains certain marks — both the marks of stains and the marks created by abrasions. Shall we call these violations? Interventions?” he questions, but admits that he really finds it intriguing to work on silk screen mesh as multiple washes and layers make his forms soft. “I play with them; I am all for spontaneity. I fall, I win. I let the forms grow. I watch them, as I would watch a growing thing, vibrate with an interior life,” he says playfully.

The show is underway at Gallerie Ganesha in New Delhi till September 12 and is open for public viewing from 11 am to 7 pm, except Sundays.