Pratidhwani, 2008

In the beginning
There was neither existence nor nonexistence
All this world was unmanifested energy………….
The one breathed, without breath by its own power
Nothing else was there…………..
'RIG VEDA'

A universal truth and existential phenomena of life is - presence of energies around us. Shampa's works are remarkable compositions personified by multifarious virtues of infinite silence, eternal power and unbounded energies that succeed in captivating the resonance of the esoteric universe. In fact beyond surface imagery, when we penetrate deeper into the essence or space of her work, we understand the energy that drives her work and the quality of energy engaged in her body of work.

Shampa's meditative works are a transcending pursuit of depicting pure, no mind state of being, emotional and mental complexities filled with thoughts and concerns of a wide range. Her canvases delineate a play of memory, influence of Buddhist & visual culture that she has gathered from her travel, along with a beckoning and subtle shift in the focus to her search of higher grounds for self consciousness in this vast echoing spatial expanse. All her thoughts and actions become a part of the cosmic energy that oscillate and resonate on her canvas in search of the Ultimate Truth.

Her soulful works, laden with bold gestural sweeps of pigments are in harmony with the forms that melt into the terrain of vibrating sounds of the void. Submerged in layers of vivid colors, duality of male - female, earth - sky, light- darkness, turmoil-calm, demon-saint, stage in Shampa's work, as symbols inspired by Buddhist culture such as - Lotus, Fish, Conch, Bell, Tiger, White Elephant and Tankri & Tibetan Text interpolate to engulf her works as if in a mystic trance. Moving from form to soul and negative to positive, invariable quest emerges, merges and re-emerges to express her conscious search of identity that floats in the quantum fog, as photons wink in and out of existence, in search of True Enlightenment.

Her works emerge out of fluid state of creation that she sees as an answer to her spiritual needs and manifestation of the mute reality of existence. Using mix media & acrylic on canvas she attempts to assimilate and cultivate compositions that transfer into her paintings as echoing impressions of this search.
As the Vedas say -
It isn't the knowledge you learn
It's the knowledge you turn into………..
Anju Sehgal
Curator