Sobāthma: Jagath Ravindra
The quivering of a waterbody on a moonlit night, the wisp of a midnight cloud passing by a hill, and the golden brilliance of a tree in bloom condense into the primal hues of blue and yellow in Jagath Ravindra’s Sobāthma.
Sobāthma becomes a time capsule, as it envelopes the viewer in a sweeping embrace of pulsating tropical colours. The transient phenomena continue to play in a loop, transporting the viewer into a moment suspended in ephemeral time. While rooted in the impressionist tradition and celebration of Claude Monet, Ravindra's practice finds its own contemporary expression in the abstract, balancing personal introspection with universal resonance.
The artist's tryst with impressionism finds its inspiration in the quotidian experiences that surprise and delight. The avalanche of brilliant yellow evokes memories of an island summer in Ehala. Hints of green conjure the faint glimpses of foliage that peek through a tree in full bloom, as the pendulous flowers droop and swing in the breeze, emanating an airiness. juxtaposed against the panoramic ten-panel Mountains in the Moonlight the rich shades of blue capture the sweeping expanse of the mountainous terrains as it slowly wakes up to daybreak. Navigating through the length of the canvas, one arrives at the end of a journey.
The exhibition continues from the artist's 2016 series, Blooming Beauty, which marked a deliberate shift towards celebrating untarnished moments of delight. Personal moments of joy find expression on canvas as the artist attempts to sustain the lingering memory of an emotion long after the moment has passed.
In Ravindra’s work recognisable contours sublimate into its essential colours. The time of the day and mood evoked by the weather determine the tonal variation and subtleties the artist brings into his palette. The enormity of the experience amplified by an emphasis on scale is further heightened by the predominant use of bold swatches of colour. With each layer adding dimension, it permits an interplay of depth and distance. As one continues to gaze into the canvas, the forms reemerge and manifest with the passage of time.
In distilling fleeting moments into an interplay of colours, Jagath Ravindra engages in a dialogue with the impressionist, Claude Monet. Much like Monet's idle waterlily ponds- whose evocation of transient beauty was a precursor to abstract art, Sobāthma reimagines these ephemeral moments through a lens that is uniquely tropical—infused with the warmth and vibrancy of Ravindra's surroundings.
