In-Within

“Abstraction allows mankind to see with theirmind what they cannot see physically with their eyes…”

Arshile Gorky

Abstraction can even move out of the physical world and make it possible for the human mind to receive and relate to the ethereal aura that surrounds him. The same characteristic of transformation through abstraction has been delicately traced in Tejinder Kanda’s artistic journey, a versatile and acclaimed artist whose practice evolved from the figurative style of art to deep exploration of the abstract.

He has been an abstractionist in his current series of works, “In-Within”, using impasto techniques and a bright palette of acrylics to establish a canvas, which is enthralling and shows a deep emotional response in the viewer. As a series, it sought to explore those uncharted territories of self, in which Kanda grapples to attain the “unidentified and unknown” from the inside, and convert this journey into a set of dynamic and bold paintings. In its artistic development, Kanda exemplified the paradoxical nature of the abstract representation as one artistic language which does not represent; rather, it conveys profound ideas and emotion. 

An example of this is Gerhard Richter’s mid-term paintings, where an artist first painted photorealistically and then obscured and shattered these visual elements on purpose, all in the creation of new forms of meaning. Belong to the same genre Kanda’s ;In-Within series, where the artist lets go of the necessity to depict the representational and goes ahead with his personal quest of self-discovery, allowing his inner imagination to manifest itself unabashedly on the canvas in a loud and Consequently, that is highly expressive. Kanda’s paintings swirl around with energetic strokes and gradations in tones, light to dark, and evoke emotion and movement into the inner experience of the artist. This defines the Abstract Expressionist movement, in which artists like Pollock and Rothko expressed their personal experiences or states of mind through the medium of paint.

For Kanda, abstraction is not just a word to describe an act of self-expression but, in fact, a route out towards transcendence, an extension beyond the bounds of one’s egoistic self in exploration of the “elemental” and the “unknown.” An extension of his artistic practice goes well beyond those astounding abstract paintings. These extend from a range of exuberant screen prints that he did in the 1990s to a body of ceramic sculptures he is currently working on, further showing his versatility and commitment to an exploration of creativity. Kanda has, through his career, earned a reputation as an adaptable and versatile artist creating vivid, dynamic works of art. He’s got a whole series of his serigraph prints that he did in the 1990s, and he’s been working on a body of ceramic works at the same time while doing the big abstract canvases of swirls of colour. 

The palette ranges from tertiary earth colours: red, browns, to another group of cool colours that take in blue, purple, green. He allows himself playfully to discover pinks, pastels, and yellows from fuchsia to coral and orchid, tinging it, symbolising calmness, feelings of relaxation and contentment. While this group of colours was most often interpreted as feminine colours, Kanda introduces masculine energy more through the method by which he applied the colours with vigour and powerful strokes.

The colours are applied wet and fluid where he waters-down acrylic paint into streaks of colour which have to be laid on before the colours dry. Thus he captures his emotions at that particular time. He contemplates the fact that time is relative since while he is painting a canvas in a day, he is drawing upon almost 50 years of his experience as an artist. Hence, the times during which these works are produced are an expression both of the past and of the present. And last but not least, Tejinder Kanda’s “In-Within” series is a very personal, ambitious project because the artist has nowadays plunged into the depths of his/her subjectivity by allowing the internal journey to come living through the same, with a metaphoric, visually loud, highly emotional body of work.

It is through masterful use of colour, texture, and gestural mark-making that Kanda invites the viewer into an extent  in which the self is not only rediscovered but actualized, and at the same time, the boundaries blur between the physical and the metaphysical in experience. It will be in the self-discovery showing what is human inexperience, in all of its raw, unrestrained beauty.