Shilpa Nikam

Things swim around in their natural state until all the amorphous, floating bits join hands and form a whole.  All that is aborning in this universe and who knows, even in other universes, has a way of pouring out from a source, unabated.  But is there a supra-force governing this?
Spaces have their own life, their individual intuitive wisdom. When one enters a painting by Shilpa Nikam, the articulation of spatial contours is the very first thing that strikes one.  Spaces not only adhere to architectural regulations, they create the same, in turn. And it is not planned, measured spaces which are manifested here; in Shilpas canvases lines, angles, shapes and forms merge and coagulate quite naturally into a singular shimmering whole.
Secret crevices are organized within each canvas and hidden alphabets scurry along into pockets of mitigated silence.  The lustre of the oils on canvas which is turning increasingly rare these days is quite unmistakable in the paintings.  And this is even more prominent with the variegated textures on the surface of the canvas --- the texture of an old, crumbling wall or that of skins of unknown creatures probing about in the dark.
In Shilpa Nikams style, what is bemusing is the ambivalence of formal structures; what seems like abstract art is meticulously organised into a pattern of lines and jagged surfaces, thereby creating a strange, recognisable style which belongs strictly to the artist alone. And again, one is left wondering whether such a distinct visual language is, in the final analysis, really abstract in the conventional sense that we know it.
 

Invocation in place of an epilogue:
For many lifetimes
I etched the magic of your eyes
in the clouds.

i extracted memories
like distilled air
from my mute dialogue
with you.

For many lifetimes
you surrounded me
like the fragrance of a season
like the music of my dream
of you.

Today the flavours mingle
as i cook
the fruit bleeds on its chopping-board
and with each distinct aroma
i wonder who it is really,
that infuses
the redness with its red.
 

Anahite Contractor

Mumbai, 2008