Sharing Sensory Experience in solo show

IT is an unmistakable fact that the arts and culture of a nation are the pride and treasure of its people. However, the role art galleries and crafts and exhibition centres play in promoting art cannot be over-emphasised in the collection, conservation and appreciation of the aesthetically pleasing creative process.

  In fulfillment of its commitment to the celebration and promotion of creative works of emerging artists and their established counterparts through exhibitions, dialogues, lectures and symposia, Dinaka Arts Gallery and Museum of Contemporary Art had an exhibition of the works of Sor Sen in a solo exhibition of the artist’s paintings and drawings.

  Sensory Experience, title of the maiden solo exhibition of the artist, reflects the unique depth and creative insights of Sen, and his engagement with thought-provoking issues bordering on the social and cultural facets of the society.

  The exhibition features several works of the artist that explores several angles. With works ranging from applications of oil on canvas, charcoal on paper to felt pen and marker on paper, Sen’s ‘Sensory Experience’ embodies the artist’s creative vision. 

  ‘Introspection’, an oil on canvas painting, captures the subject in a medley with an abstract of strokes, finely embodied in a near faultless manner, and brilliantly executed. The mental reflectivity of the works of Sen calls for critical attention.

  The brilliant absurdity of Vine Lugh Lugh Series abstract beholds itself in a beautiful company of strokes, compound in its charming reflection of character. The complexity of the beautiful angles in abstract, however, finds balance in its directional facets of meaning, symbolizing an embodiment of depth. 

  The artist states: “The exhibition is a personal artistic sojourn of years of practice, the endless routines, the hours of doubt and depression and the tenacious overcoming of obstacles endured. These works seek to engage the viewer on a personal visual vocabulary on social and cultural structures of the society.

  “The sight of an artwork is capable of inducing critical thinking. It is not always seeing the world as representing the world as it exists and sometimes, it can also stretch our ‘mindscape’ to see more than our physical eyes”.

  Tahir Sherriff, an author and writer describes Sen’s Sensory Experience as a collision of the arts, a feast for the imagination and visuals at an altitude simply unseen. He stated: “Sor Sen speaks a different way of thinking with each brush stroke; he redefines a seamless battle between what is, against what is to be.

  “With strokes under candle lights, lines, curves, moonlight reflections, sleepless days, lonely nights, years of practice and a bold step into a world where the brush has the final say, Sen re-calibrates our minds through flickers of images that inspire a range of ideas. One idea which stands out for me is that art must speak a different language in today’s way of life, a language embodied in a persistent spirit and a consistent will”.

  Continuing, Sheriff further stated: “Rather than accept the norms, or follow the trends, his paintings suggests that we may have to develop new patterns of dialogue; that we have to make an effort if we want a peaceful, more compassionate existence and a different world.

  “To do this, we must not only explore all revolutionary trends of inquiry such as the human condition, our dreams, and our wakeful moments but swim on a moving edge between what we know about ourselves and what we are about to become”.

  Sensory Experience, from the artist’s definition, can be described within the literary milieu, as an action that promotes consciousness of one or more of the five human senses: Sight, Smell, Touch, Hearing and Touch.

  According to Sor Sen, the exhibition aims to offer a survey of his body of works developed over time. The works are an exploration of a conscious and unconscious artistic essence that grants meaning to the essentials of living, informed by his experiences, gained through social interactions and reading in philosophy, poetry, patriotism, travel and history.

  He said, “These artworks are not a purely objective description of the exterior nor the absolute subjective responses, but an interface between the two. They bear social, moral and cultural values of the society. They also reflect the times and circumstances of their creation.”