Deepak Tandon
‘Where perception from wherever, is correct in itself. Where the horizon spreads in all directions. Where merger defies the theories of opposite forces. Where separation is reduced to just an illusion. Where the abstract force breaks all barriers of disputed views.’ An extract from Soaring by Deepak Tandon.
Whether working in his chosen medium of painting, photography or film, the underlying concept of Deepak Tandon’s abstract art is to take the eye away from the superficially familiar linear ideas of ‘progress and development’, allowing people to see afresh and ‘unite with the subtle & inherent truth’.
The ongoing concept in Deepak’s work is Monistic theism, or one-ness. Mostly working with opposites (from the fluidity of water and the rigidity of rock, to the sky and the earth), he constantly attempts to merge them together into one entity where each flows from and into the other, accentuating their co-dependency and union.
‘The effort is to merge elements and experiment with oneness, re-installing our ability to see organically… much relevant in this over-trained, manicured and concrete world that surrounds us,’ says Deepak.
In doing so, Deepak’s works have a mesmerising effect, dancing between different perceptions and perspectives. In his photography series Sediment–ONE Rock(shown here), the eye can dive from an eagle's perspective of nature's various elements to their microscopic view. A concave can appear in moments to be convex and vice-versa. The animate changes place with the inanimate and back again. Each work creates an almost 3-dimensional experience – the many layers seeming to elevate themselves beyond the paper surface.
‘My works attempt to weave within them the micro lines of our Nano age, the waviness and hues of nature and the abstractness of the unchangeable force that binds all. I want to provoke people to indulge in the mindlessness and the fullness of a storyless, formless essence,’ explains Deepak.
Deepak’s work has been shown in Europe, the USA, Singapore and across India. He recently completed a residency in Copenhagen on the invitation of the Danish government, and his works are housed in many institutional and private collections.
The Sediment-One Rock Series
The conceptual photographs in this series originate from a single rock in a Himalayan stream on which Deepak found himself instinctively sitting each day for hours, his own perspectives beginning to shift. Starting with an original (usually close-up) abstract photograph he builds his work in layers, repeating and mirroring elements to create the transformative effects he seeks. While transforming the appearance of solid to liquid and the other way round, he combines it with a subtle but striking palette of blue and brown, deliberately evoking a sense of the sky and the earth, leaving the viewer to dive into the visual metaphor of ‘one-ness’ and merger.
‘While sitting on that same rock each day and looking around, I realised how I had taken so many resting points in my life for granted - a comfortable shoe, a chair, a relationship etc. I realised I was resting on the rock which contained within it all the beauty I sought externally by looking around - it contained the universe, my comfortable shoe contained in it too,’ says Deepak.
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