Bina Ramani finds a new vocabulary to express emotions
Walking through the lanes in Hauz Khas, taking a left and then a right turn, and then losing track of the number of turns I took, I arrived at the Art Konsult where a show of mixed media art, done by the socialite Bina Ramani and her husband Georges Mailhot has been presented by Siddhartha Tagore, the Director of the gallery.
Bina is obsessed with cows and therefore all her artworks has the bovine creature as its subject. “I have a real relationship with cows. They emote towards me.”
She loves digital printing and thinks that a cow is the most wonderful creature. Her obsession with cows started with a photograph that her husband George showed her long ago. It was an image of a cow’s face with black spots and it made her instantly fall in love with the animal. She loves it when she spots cows on the streets.Bina’s works have digitally printed cows, standing out on a background painted by Bina, in both acrylic and oil paints. Some of them were a collage of photographs, and some involved a digitally printed cow on a photograph of a landscape.
Her autobiography, Bird in a Banyan Tree, is her attempt to clear the allegations and the controversies surrounding her regarding the Jessica Lal murder case. It was the cows that provided her “with a new vocabulary of emotions.” With a heavy voice, she said, “The book was a result of a lot of internalising and talking to myself. All the things I have gone through, them putting me behind bars, all those dirty twists and turns and all the politics. I wanted the real truth to come out. It never did. It never has. Ever since then I take life one day at a time. I don't know what lies ahead but I am just moving on with strength and courage, something that the cows have helped me with.”
She started painting after her husband insisted her to. “I knew nothing about art, but once I started, I could not stop. I made my few mistakes. He taught me all the techniques and made me understand that every stroke gone wrong was another piece of art.”
Also done in mixed media, George's artwork is abstract. It was he who prodded Bina to do this exhibition which made her dig out the pieces she had made some 9-10 years before.
“Looking at all those pieces was quite nostalgic. Art and I were meant to be.”
Curated by Brian Mulvihill, the artworks are on display till 26th February.
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