Inscapes of Unrequited Belonging

• Main Author: Banerjee, Debangana
• Other Authors: Zucker, Mark
• Format: Others
• Language: en
• Published: LSU 2010
• Subjects: Art
• Online Access: http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-05252010-141807/

This thesis is about my journey through lifememories of the past, experiences of the present and premonitions of the futureand how that journey, through its changing landscapes and human characters, generates images that I call inscapes. My subjects arise from very personal experiences and get fermented in my imagination to project an inner vision. I create deep intimate spaces, transitional moments of conscious and unconscious thoughts using both natural and personal imageries. In this endeavor, dark, solid and earthly colors and robust textures play a big role. I employ printmaking (woodcut), painting (oil on canvas) and poetry to express my mental state. Growing up in India, I feel like an outsider in this country; at the same time, being a part of the university community, I also feel like an insider. The landscape of Baton Rouge offers me plenty of similarities with my home town, Santiniketan, but it also provides profound contrasts in culture, language and people. From the very beginning my relationship with this place has been marked with a tension and contradictory emotionsa push of alienation and a pull of deep intimacy. In my inscapes I articulate all these different emotional tensions for the viewers.