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Course: Asian Art Museum > Unit 2
Lesson 5: Lesson 5: Into the ContemporaryJayashree Chakravarty on "Personal Space"
Jayashree Chakravarty (b. 1956; Khowai, Tripura, India) is a Kolkata-based artist working across painting, drawing, installation, and collage. Through richly-textured works made from a wide range of materials – including organic matter – Chakravarty examines the fraught relationship between humankind and the environment. Her autobiographical and diaristic practice is driven by her lifelong connection to nature, forged during her formative years in the Tripura countryside, as well as her increasing concerns about ecological degradation. Chakravarty studied painting at Visva-Bharati University in Santiniketan and completed her postgraduate studies in fine art at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda.
Chakravarty densely layers collaged paper, fabric, acrylic paint, oil paint, tea stains, and coffee stains to create this large paper scroll that resembles a wall. The artist adorns this surface with images, patterns, and textures that evoke geographical motifs – such as cartographic diagrams, natural landscapes, and urban structures.
"Personal Space" functions as a diary for Chakravarty, accumulating in layers as events unfold and memories arise. These emotionally fraught geographies reflect her idyllic upbringing in the lush countryside outside the city of Kolkata, as well as her anxiety seeing this natural environment destroyed by the rapid spread of urbanization. Furthermore, Chakravarty split time between France with her husband and India with her parents during this period in her life, imbuing the work with a similarly unsettled quality. For more information: http://www.asianart.org. Created by Asian Art Museum.