Just a couple of years ago, amid the serene landscapes of Lithuania, artist-art therapist Audronė Brazauskaitė would often get asked by her friends to visit India. A pioneer in her profession in her country, she would always refuse stating the long distance between the two nations as the reason. But little did she know then, love would conquer all boundaries!
Brazauskaitė met Indian filmmaker-professor Sudipto Acharyya, now her husband, and “the distance became shorter”. “He (Sudipto) had come for a conference, when we first met. Soon Covid came and we were in a long-distance arrangement. So we decided to join our lives in 2021 when Covid-19 ended,” says the 54-year-old, who is all set to exhibit her second solo art show, Interweavings, in the Capital.
As part of this showcase, which has 15 works created over three weeks of residence, the viewers would feel the pull of the artworks that appease not just the eyes but even the mind. “Being a professional art therapist, she deals with interweaving of the brain waves and tries to express it on paper using colours,” shares Sharad Chauhan, co-curator and gallerist, adding, “On these dyed papers, she has imposed figures such as yoga postures and used ornamentation that she found in the museum here.”
Cultural influences of both the nations have an impact on Brazauskaitė, who took to art in kindergarten! “I started expressing myself in art very early in my life, I must have been two or three years old. When in kindergarden, I would draw, everyone marvelled at my work. As a child such attention was very important,” recalls Brazauskaitė, who later took to art school and even worked in art academia. “But now what I’m doing is very different,” she shares, explaining, “I used to teach art therapy, but now my creations are more for me. I now take more freedom in the process, in the moment that invoves the process of creation, as I can allow my unconscious to be more spontanteous. I realised that my creative process was influenced by the art therapy approach to creativity. In art therapy, spontaneity and the moment are of great importance. So when I start to paint, I see only an initial abstract idea or recent experience on a blank canvas or paper. What happens next is like a dialogue between me and the painting, which ultimately expresses the themes of the painting in my subconscious.”
Referring to one of her works, she shares, “The painting of the girl is a self portrait that shows me when I was 12! What’s interesting is the light on the face, and I tried to inspire myself to work on it with gold ornamentation, which is an integration from my current life as I witnessed Indian culture and Mughal traditions at the National Museum here in Delhi. To draw a portrait out of portrait means you are connecting with something very deep in yourself.”
Her experiments with light and paper can be appreciated in the work wherein she uses the Batik method of dyeing to bring a surprise element to the background. “I saw how putting cloth in dye one could create amazing patterns, I used the same technique with handmade paper and got a very accident or random pattern! These are some of my artworks that create a rhythmic pattern,” she concludes.
Catch It Live
What: Interweavings
Where: Gallery ONKAF, C-1/20, Safdarjung Development Area
When: August 23 to 31
Timing: 11am to 7pm
Nearest Metro Station: Green Park (Yellow Line)
