Dipankar Sinha is a Dhaka based artist currently living in Kolkata. He completed his MFA at the department of graphics in Rabindra Bharati University after completing BFA from the department of printmaking,Dhaka University.
Dipankar produces artworks in traditional printmaking technique.has been honing his skill in etching and lithograph. His artworks depicts personal and social issues related to his experience and personal encounters such as depression,anxiety,sexual orientation and identity.
His earlier works were focused on intricacy and detailing through the uses of tonal variation,later he tried experimenting artworks with lines and two dimensional flatness,yet not ignoring the intricacy and detailing.he uses manually drawn lines to create his artworks that often resemble tonal variations utilizing weightlessness and flat compositions to tell stories.
Dipankar Sinha
The thought of personal identity is the dominant idea when it comes to my artworks. The whole idea of identity is a wide and vast concept itself to discuss. There are many things that can be the part of someones identity and some of them are not even constant. They change with emotion and time. Our feelings,psychology towards certain things may change,even our appearance change too.
I decided to choose an identity that is constant and a vital part of who I am. Being a “Queer” individual myself, I try to express the “Queer” sexuality and the related idioms,experiences through my artwork.
Chaos in Eden.
For references I turned to the ancient artworks, folk arts of India, the woodcut prints of Japan, Persian paintings, Egyptian murals.
The influence of Japanese woodcut prints are quite clear in my artwork, the bold flat lines, flat two dimensional compositions attracted me and I tried to incorporate that in my artworks, the weightless of my figures were influenced by these artworks, I also see contemporary fashions to get ideas for the dresses of my figures. The oriental robes, headgears are influenced by the ancient and folk artworks.
The reason behind choosing this has a QUEER history too.
Queer sexual identity,gender expression was never seen as taboo in Asian cultures, the artworks found in different parts of Asia often shows queer relationships,identity in a positive manner. It was the European ideology that imposed the idea of “Queerness” and spread it around.terming it unethical,unnatural and rest is a history of struggle for what non heterosexuals came to be known as “Queers”.for this when I tried to create a simple style of mine, I looked at the artworks of Asia and found inspiration. With all the various styles I saw, I tried to come up with my own distinctive style and composition.
References
I’m still trying to explore and find new ways to express my aryworks through studies and exploration,im seeing the queer community from inside and trying to identify the issues,its problems,its pusposes,struggles abd trying to express them through my artworks.
Conclusion
The main source of idea of this artwork is myself.
I started expressing my sexual expression through my artworks when I started questioning myself. With time when slowly I started becoming part of the Queer community, I started adding the experiences and the thoughts I had in my artworks. Be it my own stories or just thoughts related to me in a broader sense. The struggle of the whole community, the incidents or simply my own story as a queer individual.
My recent artworks talk about the Queer community that I have experienced and my queries about it. Thus, I’ve been trying to create a series named “Chaos in Eden”
Source of ideas
- Ankur Sinha