Untitled 

Curator: Here we have a painting currently titled "Untitled" by Sonaly Gandhi. It’s executed in acrylic paint, in a bold, contemporary style. Editor: My first thought is that this has a somber tone. The predominantly red hue combined with the poses of the figures, speaks to a kind of raw emotionality. The figures and pocketwatch stand out starkly against that white background, as if isolating some crucial, painful moment. Curator: Indeed. Looking at the artist’s technique, you notice how she uses the materiality of acrylic to create sharp delineations in colour. It's as if she's imposing this very stark and somewhat inflexible structure onto very soft forms, the nude human figures. Consider also, the application of a squared-off pattern across one of the figures. It suggests that even the human form can become subject to constructed, systematic control, not unlike a factory assembly line, dehumanizing perhaps. Editor: Absolutely. It's fascinating how the chessboard patterning immediately invites interpretation. Are we to see life, relationships, perhaps the figures themselves, as pawns within a predetermined game? Or is the absence of colour, merely a graphic technique? That suspended clock behind the male figure–it looms there, implying the passage of time as a powerful, ever-present force acting upon these individuals. We cannot escape time's relentless, indifferent march forward. Curator: I agree. Moreover, the deliberate and almost primitive mark-making around the edge of the canvas pushes this toward pop art with its critique on modern materials and social order. It creates this interesting dichotomy – technically impressive yet with visible markers of how it was produced. There's nothing hidden. The seams, the drips. Editor: Precisely! And notice, too, the choice of classical allusions like the human nude. Yet it is defaced with pop-art square markings! I agree: a truly critical pop-art piece that challenges a more classic iconography! The artist layers visual traditions in an open critique! Curator: An interesting piece, really making the viewer think about modern interpretations of classic figures in pop art form! Editor: Absolutely, a truly potent and engaging combination of visual themes, brought to bear upon matters of personal experience and the march of time!