The Open Studio / Asmita Das
Asmita Das
Despair
Blue water, rust lines and salt that will not stay still
Blue spreads through wet paper like a bruise under skin.
Rust lines run across it, thin as wire, bent as roots.
Salt leaves a frost of small white stars.
A dark eye opens in the middle and does not close.
Somewhere a pale line tries to hold the shape together.
The water keeps moving after the hand has stopped.
The work
Asmita Das is an artist from Kolkata. Her college is The Indian College of Arts and Draftsmanship. Most of the time she paints in the wash style. She finds it calm. Despair, from 2024, is different. Here she works with ink, gum and salt. She wants the materials to carry the feeling. Blue washes spread across the paper. Rust-brown lines twist over them like roots or wire. Pale grainy patches break the surface. For Das, the spreading colour first feels like losing a battle. Later it becomes a source of strength.
In the artist’s words
“I use materials to express how I feel at that moment, as in works such as 'Rays of Hope', 'Despair' and 'The Frenzy of the Flames'. I want the materials themselves to become part of the feeling of the work. In some pieces the spreading of the colours first feels like losing the battle. Later it becomes my biggest power.”
- Theme
- Despair and inner strength
- Material
- Mixed media: ink, gum and salt
- Size
- 42 × 29.7 × 0.03 cm
- Year
- 2024
- Edition
- 1
- Framed
- Yes
- About the artist
- The Indian College of Arts and Draftsmanship
- From
- Kolkata
- Code
- RC-700
