Important Notice

"Life is like a dollhouse. We are all always playing musical chairs." - ARPITA SINGH

Arpita Singh's works are replete with disparate images and references, blurring the line between real and surreal. Guided by the artist's vision, each object and symbol merits examination to unveil layers and narratives. Nilima Sheikh aptly summarises her style, saying that "...it is important for her to invent, everyday. And still it would not... "Life is like a dollhouse. We are all always playing musical chairs." - ARPITA SINGH

Arpita Singh's works are replete with disparate images and references, blurring the line between real and surreal. Guided by the artist's vision, each object and symbol merits examination to unveil layers and narratives. Nilima Sheikh aptly summarises her style, saying that "...it is important for her to invent, everyday. And still it would not be a contradiction to say that for Arpita... repetition is the warp of invention. She uses it to lay the ground field of her world. The rhythms of repetition form structure and continuity within her paintings and between them... to invent strategies of survival - terms of acceptance and/or resistance in the grim, funny and beautiful business of day-to- day living." (Arpita Singh: Memory Jars, New Paintings and Watercolors, New York: Bose Pacia, 2003, p. 2)

The present lot, an earlier work, employs a dark palette with a deliberate use of light and colour amidst the shadows. The artist juxtaposes various elements and characters in a fantastical and theatrical scene, similar to other works depicting "...an enchanted world where objects, humans, and vegetation are all imbued with a magical life... They dissolve into one another, life metamorphosing into life, creating a magical symbiosis." (Yashodhara Dalmia, "Arpita Singh: Of Mother Goddesses and Women," Expressions and Evocations: Contemporary Women Artists of India, Mumbai: Marg Publications, 1996, p. 70)

Singh often adds elements to the margins of her paintings - here, only partially revealed while the rest lies in darkness, leaving the viewer guessing. "As a compositional device, Singh often lavishes great attention on the outer edges of her canvases, creating wide margins that contain ancillary elements... The images on the edges of Singh's pictures may function as footnotes or addendums to the main image; in these margins a fleeting thought or a whispered secret can be easily accommodated." (Peter Nagy, "The Simplest of Means of Arpita Singh," Arpita Singh: Memory Jars, New York: Bose Pacia Modern, 2003)

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