Facial Expressions

The face is otherwise called a mirror, a mirror where we can see emotions of a person. Happiness, sadness, anger, fulfilment and so many expressions can be depicted in our faces. The painting exhibition titled 'Mukher Obhibyakti' or 'Facial Expressions' of Shruti Gupta Kasana, an Indian fashion designer-cum-painter was all about the happiness of the people, especially of women.

In the recently held exhibition at Banani’s Dhaka Gallery, she said that the main theme of her exhibition revolved around the turmoil, transitions and ups and downs endured by women of the world during the pinnacle of the pandemic. She emphasised that it is women that have been going through more adverse situations as well as transformations during the pandemic.

These aspects include domestic violence, financial havoc and the work-&-home tug-of-war for working women and so on which affected women comparatively more strongly compared to men. But after getting afflicted with the pandemic blues for almost two years now, the positive transformations, transitions and rising up of women fascinates Shruti. That is the reason she chose to depict facial expressions and body language of the happy, rejuvenated and optimistically transformed female faces from around the world.

The colour palate she has used in mostly mixed medium artwork is absolutely vibrant but vigilant. Shruti has also tastefully used fabric patches in her work which incorporates her designer identity into the artist instinct. Most of the women in her paintings have attractive silhouettes, enchanting smiles and colourful adornments. She has intelligently used chunks of bright colours to create bright smiles on the subjects in the paintings. She has used colourful bits and pieces of fabric to positively represent the very accessory that is quintessential for the post pandemic looks, that is the face masks.

There are artworks of Shruti in this exhibition that demonstrate the different phases of womanhood. We see a mother carrying a child, enchanting young women, struggling women finally prevailing, women being loved and vice versa and even a veiled women who shows true promise to win the world.

Her extensive travelling to different parts of the world has derived inspirations from various places and it is clearly demonstrated in her exhibition that has a true global favour. The use of pieces of fabric in her paintings is a wonderful example for upcycling to which the world is inclined these days. Again, last but not the least, Shruti's vibrant and skilfully experimental exhibition implies that the women of the world are the very sphinx that has survived the incineration posed by the grim and fatal pandemic that has changed the whole world.

Shruti Gupta Kasana is a renowned designer in the knitting industry in Bangladesh. She has ample experience in working with big names in the very sector. At present, she successfully runs an organisation of her own. After a very long interval, she has taken time to express her thoughts and perceptions through the canvas medium.

She has relentlessly worked hard for two months to make great efforts for this exhibition. Though coming from an Indian origin, Shruti fondly calls Bangladesh her own country. She is so well settled here now, that she often feels urge to come back to Bangladesh during long visits to India. So her home is where her heart is, that is Bangladesh.

She came here in 2006, and has been living here for fifteen years now. Shruti has a post graduate degree from one of the finest and topmost institutes in fashion Sector in India, NIFT. In spite of her dazzling qualification as a designer, Shruti is still an artist at heart. In addition to that, she has proper Bachelors in fine arts degree from the University of Kanpur, India. As a result, her excellence as an artist and her passionate preparations for the exhibitions clearly shows in the artworks she has presented here.