The Open Studio / DEEPAK KUMAR RAI
DEEPAK KUMAR RAI
Delhi
Two suitcases, a bucket of flowers and a whole village behind them
Purple sky, a small pale moon, one palm tree.
The village is only ink lines now, white as unfired clay.
On the sand: a tin bucket with red petals, a suitcase tagged 3.
A bundle tied at the top like a closed mouth.
She stands in turmeric yellow and pink, close enough to touch.
Her eyes stay on us. The houses stay behind her.
The work
In Delhi, Deepak Kumar Rai paints what a family carries from the village to the city. Two suitcases and a cloth bundle wait on open sand. A metal bucket holds floating red flowers. For Rai, the bucket is "the Blessing of home which I carry along with me." Behind them, village houses are drawn in fine pen and ink and left almost white. In front stands a matriarch in a yellow sari. Rai made the work in 2024. He is from the College of Art, New Delhi.
In the artist’s words
“My work shows how the culture we carry from our roots changes and disappears between rural and urban spaces. The bucket represents experiences and emotions, the blessing of home which I carry with me. The matriarch is a carrier of ritual continuity. She holds the weight of tradition against the pressure of the present.”
- Theme
- Village memory and migration
- Material
- Mixed media: watercolour, pen and ink and soft pastels
- Size
- 30 × 36 cm
- Year
- 2024
- Edition
- 1
- Framed
- Yes
- About the artist
- COLLEGE OF ART, NEW DELHI 110001
- From
- NEW DELHI
- Code
- RC-444
