IN THE TWILIGHT ZONE
Pratul Dash
Anant Art Gallery, 2018
Catalogue essay: Roobina Karode
This recent suite of paintings lure us into landscapes that amplify the twilight zone, situating us in undefined locales, perhaps imaginary sites, to contemplate a world that is at once familiar, strange and unsettling in its configuration. Pratul juxtaposes motifs obliquely hinting at depleting resources, waste of water and land, disappearing trees and a disoriented animal world.
Against a predominantly low hanging starry night sky, we see the protagonist, at times displaced and on the edge, or with his dog in the light of the twilight, as if witnessing an existential dilemma. Butterflies in the intense blue sky restlessly hover around, disoriented and distraught in the absence of flowers. This is reiterated in a flowerless landscape where lotuses seem to be falling from the sky along with the stars. The artist turned angel is standing on an unstable platform, with his wings caught in flames. Seeing no escape, he questions his own being. How does one accept what one does not believe in?
(excerpt from the catalogue essay ‘IN THE TWILIGHT ZONE’ by Roobina Karode)