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When splatter is not what it appears to be, and meticulous pointillism is just a hazy cloud, one is piqued by the artist’s creative process. Aditi Singh’s remarkable sleight of hand is evident from her series of graphite and ink drawings at the Thomas Erben Gallery, New York. Titled, ‘All that is left behind’, the Mumbai based artist’s profusion of atmospheric and natural surfaces result from her ability to erase, manipulate, and drop ink on different densities of paper.
Singh’s unique combination of calligraphy ink with graphite and charcoal makes for work that is enchantingly opaque. Abstract forms create impressions of undulating liquid surfaces, decrepit facades, foggy skies, and aerial coagulation from pollution. On closer inspection, Singh’s trademark technique to drop and control the diffusion of ink on paper reveals itself. Her mastery over the velocity of the drop and the extent of its splatter makes the significance of chance secondary in her work. The appearance of happenstance and the random application of ink on paper becomes all but an illusion.
In Untitled (2014-15), painstakingly rendered graphite markings on the front of the paper, combined with ink dripped on the reverse side, produce the effect of large dewdrops on a windshield, and slithering bacteria magnified under a microscope. Shades of blue and pink illuminate hazy globules that seem to slide randomly on the surface. The faintly visible graphite scores merge with the obscurely scattered ink to give the work a gritty surface. Like free flowing watercolour on paper, shades of slate grey, mist green, and torris blue converge and disperse. Singh’s dexterous manipulation and blending of colours creates a sense of translucency and depth in the work.
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