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Anusuya's ‘Buddha' series unravels into a subtle multilayered search for silent harmonies in a world eternally ravaged by continuities of episodic violence. The conflict inherent in a present besieged by the appurtenances and excesses of a mechanistic life-culture, forces the artist to re-examine fundamental values. She identifies the restraining grace – the universal principle - that has since time immemorial kept human existence from degenerating into mindless self perpetuating anarchy, in the symbol of the Buddha.
“I try to touch the Buddha, the Buddha as man,” says the artist. “I seek him through the five senses…sometimes my own, sometimes the Buddha's…at times pointing directly to my own statements, at times offering insights into the entire situation…” The eye is the telescope, the key to knowledge. The hand epitomizes touch, the first organ of awareness.
Anusuya's art is riveting, as much in the largeness of its conceptual space, as in the perfection and intricate profusion of its symbolic and decorative detail.
In ‘The Birth of the Buddha', the tender face of an infant Buddha lies quiescent, layered over and under with exquisitely detailed bird and flower motifs that seem to sing with joy. The half closed eyes and vulnerable lips radiate a nascent but eternal serenity. From the black background, the image emerges, both veiled and magnified with designs and layers of ethereal color. It suggests a peaceful Garden of Eden, untouched by trauma.
In ‘Buddha and Mara' red hot violence nudges Buddha's equilibrium. Mara epitomizes conflict. Almost instinctively the Buddha raises his arm, as though to ward off the vibrations of the – as yet unseen – disharmony that has invaded his space. All his of five senses are shafted by Mara's talons and the waves of angry hostility emanating from him. The birds have disappeared. The ornamental flowers that remain on one side of the Buddha are no longer celebratory showers, but formal emblems of his identity.
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