Ekta Singha is a promising young artist known for her brilliant use of multiple mediums and materials. Her interest in Mughal, Persian and Rajput miniature painting has helped Ekta create a distinct artistic language of her own. Visual experiences in different points of time that she has received consciously and subconsciously, make their entrance in the pictorial surface of Ekta’s canvas, layered with metaphorical and personal references, and a paraphernalia of design motifs, forms and elements derived from miniature paintings.
Memories of her ancestral home and lineage in Bangladesh play a strong role in Ekta Singha’s work. Creating patterns is integral to her style, becoming an important visual tool to subtly transform experiences – disturbing events and memories – through consistent appearance. Through the manipulation of various mediums and forms, she creates a layered image that is imbued with fragments of photographs, texts, found images, objects and designs. Ekta often uses burnt papers and handcrafted papers to create ‘jalis’ inspired by Islamic architecture. Antique textures create the metaphorical surface of the artist’s work, and she uses them to control the gaze of the viewer, making them seek images beneath the layers. The old photographs that Ekta uses are not just a documentation of history and family chronology, but also used to evoke a visual sensation.
There is an interesting amalgamation of two traditions in Ekta Singha’s work - miniature painting and Pata scroll paintings. The miniature visual elements help her in creating the desired pictorial surface, while the scroll format allows her to build an expansive terrain, that create a sense of movement in her art.
