Urban Portraits

Digbijayee Khatua

My practice is vastly influenced and marked by my shift from Odisha to Delhi and encounters with the ever-changing landscape that is evident through the recording of minute details– both real and imagined, in my works. This migration greatly influenced me as an artist, and I drew an interest in urbanization and cityscapes as subject matter for my paintings. With my rural background, the appeal of the urban lifestyle and the metropolitan has instigated in me the desire to see the city, its architecture, history, design, culture, and everyday urban life.

My practice elaborates my complex vision of simple images where characters from the past come in and create dramatic moments. Sometimes, they posit relevant questions on our present society and the issues concerning us. A large three-dimensional work ‘constructed’ with paper conveys a sense of familiar monotony through a graphic repetition of form and color, and a spatial exactitude that is reminiscent of architectural and machine drawings. These images deal with objects and landscapes within the city. I often include small detailed drawings, which elevate the work from being just one of many elements within a landscape; over time, the structure of the building becomes more isolated. In the process, it is transformed into a paper cutting, and from layered drawings and a tray to a three-dimensional form.

My practice includes painting, installations and sculptural frieze in varying degrees of mixture and over layering where the technique and use of different mediums serves to form elaborate visual language. Through my research, I intend to identify local people and interact with them to record their experiences about the city. Fusing stylistic elements drawn from miniature paintings and traditional ‘Patua’ paintings, the pictorial surface in my works gains various perspectives and layers through compartmentalised renditions of the city.

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