The New Nation - Internet Edition

Sheikh Arif Bulbon

“I've known Tenzin Dorji since mid-way though his studies at Shantiniketan in West Bengal. Since that time, I have observed him cultivating a passion to know, to understand and accomplish within an environment where fruits abound, yet only to those who have the tenacity and the way to yield them. He represents a movement towards development of a contemporary art scene in Bhutan, a Bhutan confronted with a smaller world and consequently a changing social landscape. For him, the world is a waterfall of experiences, a confluence that submerges with in his mindscape. With a few instruments at hand and a congenial environment these experiences are intuitively prompted forth," said Shane Eastwood, artist from Australia about promising Bhutanese artist Tenzin Dorji at his first solo exhibition held at Samatata Gallery in Dhaka, Bangladesh recently.

Tenzin Dorji was born in Bhutan on September 12, 1979. He completed his BFA on Printmaking (graphic art) from Kala Bhavana of Visva-Bharati at Shantiniketan in West Bengal in India. His art works done in etchings, mix media like collage, painting and drawing, which symbolizes a movement towards development of a contemporary art landscape in Bhutan.

From the macro-natural power one goes to the world of emotions which are no melodramatic expressions but very close to ones heart and soul. Those emotions are colourfully codified within Tenzin's paintings of masks as sadness or happiness, anger or a look of the 'empty mind.'

As a freelance artist, Tenzin uses tradition's 'physical metaphors' in his paintings for the erotic and spiritual in a non-conventional manner, to reinstate the modern or even perpetual need to re-evaluate what is taken for granted in the chronic static tradition in relation to one's own sprouting skills and knowledge. Shane Eastwood said, "Often detectable as troops of different traditions, visual and philosophical these visions reveal his pre-occupation with Bhutanese tradition, the foundations of his identity in relation to his secular, personal impulses cultivated over the last six years. Not content to just reproduce or simply interpret the nominalizations of tradition, Tenzin uses what I will attempt to describe here as tradition's 'physical metaphors' for the erotic and numinous in a non-conventional manner, thus re-establishing the contemporary or even perennial need to re-appraise what is taken for granted in the ever present static tradition in relation to one's own evolving experience and knowledge. Tradition though, stands as cognizant of self, an interiority ultimately non-definable and, Tenzin, 'him-self' as an anterior to an exteriority, an unstable ephemeral fixture known as the conventional world in our minds. It is this duality, being situated between an interiority and exteriority in the mind that Tenzin works to reconcile, him-self with self."

During the primeval period masks were covered under the 'narrative' and 'social world', which reflects the epic themselves on the one hand to the dramatic compelling vehicle. Masks are very decorative at the level of archetypal portrayals of Ramayana and Mahabharata in South Asia. On the other hand, the satiric social characters similarly stir up very sound response. When mask is not hypo critic appearance or camouflaged farce but innocent like the primitive people of the world - those are aesthetically sublime and culturally very much functional.

Mustafa Jaglul Wahid, Chief Executive of Gallery Samatata and main organizer the exhibition, said, "Tenzin's artworks definitely find its connectivity from natural world to subtle sacred rituals. The exposition highlights how man looked at nature and created masks of animals and alongside one sees the animal world with their emotive faces mush close to pre-historic look, then again those are so, as perceived by the man."

Samatata art gallery will continuously be introducing outstanding young contemporary artists into the art industry, as well as providing opportunities for young art lovers, he said.

Earlier works of Tenzin makes a philosophical statement. The bridge is not merely a bridge of the past but a bridge that transports you to a different plane. The ruins are not just mere ruins but a crying out for the lost past. The lake under the moonlight is a reflection of his desires but not necessarily they are to be met. He looks for that pure existence which only an aesthetic experience can bring. The recent works of masks done in collage, painting and drawings are somewhat representational in its forms. These mediums are now his jargon. He now transforms them and gives a new form, and an aesthetic plane that brings traditional forms to a new interpretation. Tenzin is an artist to experience the vast compendium of other mediums, said Rezina Wahid of Gallery Samatata about the art works of Tenzin Dorji.

The mystic quality of Tenzin's works touches any soul. Bhutan where mountains abound, lush greenery traces the ever rippling streams builds a saga of delights for this artist. Since his infant days, he had been fed with these delights. He looks back into the past with a mystic's eyes and they find new forms in his expressions. Tenzin has just begun his journey but shows all traces of a willingness to experience more and add to the greater canvass of his soul. A total of 38 art works of Tenzin Dorji are displaying in the exhibition. The exhibition will conclude on March 28.