These works of art are so full of detail that they possessthe ability to enrapture the viewer and have him transfixed. One could loseoneself in the labyrinth of the coloured pencil lines that together make up thevarious forms and get a rich experience of the feelings and thoughts that theart invokes.
In answer to questions about her style, Sohela Dabiri termsher artwork as Visionary Art, though she finds that putting a label to works ofart confines their scope. The term perhaps most closely encapsulates the factthat she does not begin working on the canvas with a concept in mind. What sheworks on takes shape gradually. “It starts with a dot, a circle, a sketch andgrows,” she says. Her paintings were on display in a gallery in Panjim, and theexhibition opened with an art performance which began with an installation ofan open coffin surrounded by eggs and red threads emerging out of the coffin.“The coffin symbolises death and the fact that it is open symbolisesresurrection. The red threads symbolise intuition. In Germany we say ‘followthe thread’, meaning, follow your intuition. The eggs have always been a symbolof life and fertility across cultures and religions,” she says.
In fact, her paintings display a strong sense of fertility,the feminine, life in all forms and the symbiotic nature of these forms. Thepaintings have captions such as Fertility, Frrived etc and Dabiri has many atime been asked whether her pictures are sensual and sexual. To this sheanimatedly answers, “The whole universe is like this. The atoms, they attracteach other. The dragonflies mate when they are airborne and their unison formsthe shape of a heart.”
Dabiri first visited India in 1994. She then relocated here11 years ago and all her paintings have been made during her stay in Goa withthe sound of the monsoon providing background music. “The paintings have beenvery inspired by Mother India. When I came to India, I could discover my femaleside “ going to Banaras, Rajasthan, seeing those powerful beautiful Indian womencarrying heavy things and being in the mountains doing work, I could connect tomy female side,” she explains.
What’s next on her agenda? “I do not like to identify myselfwith anything. I do not know who I am; I am on the way to finding that out. Ilove dancing. If people ask me whether I am an artist, it is difficult to say.I am much more than the label,” she concludes.
