Debosmita Samanta
b.1987
2012 M.F.A. (Painting), S. N School of Arts and Communication, Hyderabad Central University, Hyderabad
2010 B.V.A. (Painting), College of Art and Design, Burdwan University, West Bengal
Debosmita'swork reflects how she sees the society she lives in and women’s perception of themselves and their identity. It also focuses on
the psychological and emotional aspects of a woman’s life in the context of society. Specific lived experiences, familiar spaces, memories, family history, dreams, and personal mythologies tend to appear and re-appear in her paintings. The images in her works are reminiscences of a broad range of experiences. These themes and ideas are
represented with metaphors and deeper meanings. Much of her imagery emerges from a deep and dormant experiential memory and the act of painting or drawing becomes a tool for extracting them. Shealways considers herself a storyteller, and the characters in herpaintings are often her family members, especially the women in her life. They become actors playing various roles within her imagery, narrating her emotions on the surface of her canvas and paper. The landscapes shepaints tell their own story. These are the outcome of her conscious and subconscious mind. Debosmitalike to work with the idea of ‘presence in absence’.
Theselandscapes are not just made with trees or bushes but also with overlapping layers of her memories as well as personal mythologies. They are recreated and reimaged with some of her observations from various road trips and are juxtaposed with fantasy and imagination. The visuals shecaptures with her eyes come out in the form of scribbling and graduallydevelop a story on its own.
The idea to use amirror in this series came from Lewis Carroll’s 1871 novel ‘Through the Looking-Glass’. The mirrors in the paintings act as a doorway to enter her magical and fantastical world. These mirrors are placed in a position where the viewers can see themselves or at least a part of them and that very visual becomes the key to moving into the mystical landscapes.