The Illusion of Culture and Painting
- Jonas
With “In Dreams Begin Responsibilities“, Indian-born artist Amrita Dhillon presents her first solo show at Tanya Leighton, Berlin — a visual journey to her homeland, or what might initially appear to be imagery from there. With her work she explores questions of cultural representation thereby highlighting the subjectivity of perception: what somebody sees and feels is as much determined by the viewer as it is by the image.
In her work, slightly blurry protagonists are stylised in shiny, monochromatic manner, painted on various mediums like velvet, satin and canvas which are often sewn together and used in one artwork. Bodies and jewellery alike produce glaring light effects, obscuring the scenery like a memory or dream that translates rather to a feeling than a real life situation. At first, these images come off vibrant and glamorous. The canvasses have a striking luminosity and depth to them. It is only on second sight that we discover their eerie quality – a darkness behind the glow like an ominous foreshadowing evoked through ambiguous facial expressions, distorted bodies and the fractured canvasses.
Dhillon’s motifs stem from film stills drawn from old Bollywood movies, a series of German films from 1921, 1937, and 1954 that emulate Indian culture and a 90s documentary on religious fundamentalism in India. Already in the images she is using, fact and fiction blur. As a viewer it is impossible to tell which painting originated from what film but that’s exactly the point.
The artist, who is “obsessed with movies“, is particularly interested in their influence in shaping the audience’s values. Currently her focus lies on their portrayal of women. Especially in India – the biggest film industry in the world –, the viewer encounters a radically different image of women on screen opposed to how their lives are in reality. “That’s what movies are trying to do. They’re fooling you into feeling things, putting it very simply.“, she says. Something that could be said of painting too, of course. But more importantly – in film and painting alike – what somebody sees and feels is as much determined by the viewer as it is by the art.
Dhillon uses these dichotomies of fact and fiction, objectivity and subjectivity. She draws from the illusions created in the movies and does twofold. Through the selection of a specific frame and its abstracted, painterly depiction, she furthers the illusion of the movie while at the same time investigating it. Painting may not offer an in-depth sociological analysis of cinema’s sociological dynamics, but it is a good tool to reveal and question viewing habits.
When asked how she feels about mixing such different, at times even politically incorrect imagery of her culture into one indistinguishable mix, Dhillon underlines that this is exactly the point. Just as her paintings blur different narratives on Indian culture, each depiction of culture we encounter in our lives is layered, biased and subjective – something we have to be aware of in order to critically reflect what we see.
Crucial for this aspect of her work is the repetition of motifs. She usually paints several iterations of the same motive – on small formats, large formats, varying crops and different materials, thereby making it possible to regard it from different “viewpoints“, to compare and investigate where the different effects from each iteration come from.
This goes for the paintings’ content as well as the medium painting itself. As mentioned before, painting is a tool of illusion and like movies there “to fool you into feeling something“. The variations in her paintings allow us to trace the possibilities of the medium on a very general level and to ask us why this version might trigger a dreamier feeling and in the other one the eerie quality prevails.
While this stylistic range is a strength of Dhillon’s work, this exhibition shows that it is a fine line to walk. With the styles and motives varying strongly, it was difficult at times to really get into the exploration of the imagery where even small differences can go a long way. However, as a young painter at the beginning of her career this is not a bad thing. It shows how well she knows her craft and together with the highly relevant topic of her artistic exploration, Amrita Dhillon is definitely an artist to watch.
Amrita Dhillon “In Dreams Begin Responsibilities“ is on view at Tanya Leighton, Berlin until August 9, 2025