Glass, candle smoke, gouache, LED filament
4.5 x 4.5 in each
I read about one of Bengali scientist Jagadish Chandra Bose’s many inventions, the crescograph, an instrument that records the movement of plant leaves or roots in response to stimuli on a pane of smoked glass. I wanted to adapt the scientific material of smoked glass into a surface for painting. This is a study of a sketch on a postcard by Bengali artist and contemporary to Bose, Gaganendranath Tagore. The sketch interprets Bose’s findings on the effects of artificial light on plant growth as an allegory for “academic light” that cultivates the Bengali intellectual class. On the back of the postcard, Tagore writes a short note to the recipient, asking “What do you think of this?”
Glass, camphor smoke, gouache
16 x 12 in
I lit camphor incense and swiveled a pane of glass above the tall flame, catching rolls of black smoke on the surface. I painted onto the soot-covered glass a study of a painting by Gaganendranath Tagore: a frog dressed in British finery atop a lotus leaf, “striking” bamboo, and “shy” mimosa trees, all look up to a floating Jagadish Chandra Bose who is enlightened with a third eye.