“I look through the window at the huge valley lit up with different colors. The town is cradled by the dark mountains. From afar it looks as if nothing can get in or out, but judging by the stillness of the view it’s as if the citizens have made peace with it and have settled without worry into their insular but protected haven each evening. There are people in the world, I imagine, who are born and die in the same town, maybe even in the same house, or bed. Creatures without migration: have they not lived a life because they have not moved? What of the migratory loss González, moving from one place to another and marking every stopping place with angst? What kind of alternative is that? For once my father and I are thinking the same way, sharing a similar yearning for our starting points to have been different, for our final destination to be anything other than the tearful, resentful arrival it is likely to be.”― Rigoberto Gonzalez, Butterfly Boy: Memories of a Chicano Mariposa Butterfly boy has found a new home now.
Decentred and displaced, he tries hard to find peace within this new place, within its people. Butterfly boy is sleeping, lying on the connective tissues of his parent cultures; he sleeps with a smile at the corner of his lips. He dreams of dreamless sleep in his tap-rooted home, secured and everlasting. All of a sudden a shiver runs down his spine. Butterfly boy is scared. Inside the pseudo-contentedness of his tranquil dream, a shadow lurks. Like our Butterfly boy, every migrated person carries a continuous feeling of anxiety deep inside their heart. As if he has the last piece of the puzzle that doesn’t quite fit, or maybe he himself is the last piece of that puzzle anxious to fit in with the other pieces. The more he struggles to fit in the more his uniqueness becomes pronounced. He becomes even more anxious. But he must fit in, as he is the last piece of that puzzle, his new home. What will happen if he fails to fit in? And what will happen finally finds his space?
On behalf of the ‘Canvassar’, I am inviting you on a journey to explore this chosen fraction of Artist Shwarga Bhattaacharjee’s grand oeuvre. For the next few moments, let us enjoy his paintings where, hidden within each layer of glorious paint, lurks the shadow of a great disquiet.
Antora Dey, Curator
Shwarga Bhattacharjee was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh, now living in Philadelphia. He received his MFA in drawing and painting from Tyler School of Art, Temple University, and his BFA in drawing and painting from the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Dhaka. He has been showing his work in the United States and Bangladesh. His shows include venues like Vox Populi, Jcal Art Center, Temple Contemporary, and Dhaka Art Summit. He also curated shows for Little Berlin, “Visiting Curator Program”. He was selected as one of the “Young Talent” at Dhaka Art Summit 2012 and has also been awarded residencies at Britto Student Residency and Jentel Artist Residency. He also worked as a children’s book illustrator for “Room to Read” in Bangladesh.
