Artist Rahul Inamdar’s new solo exhibition titled ‘Reduction’ houses artworks that had him experimenting with form, colour and memory, to create a unique sensorial experience for the viewers. On view till September 2 at New Delhi-based Threshold Art Gallery, the ongoing show is a glimpse into his creative process.

Inamdar is an alchemist of formless colour gradients who does not tidily fit into any genres and the new series ‘Reduction’ brings a heightened perception and imperceptibly resonates in individual ways with textures of imagination and memory. The title refers to the concerns that have propelled Inamdar’s work over the past many years in — how to remove traces of his influence and control on his work.

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Wordless thought turns into colour masses that propel the viewer onto a sensorial imaginative journey. Inamdar leads the way in the use of translucent colour washes with pigments that he has carefully mixed into his own aesthetic palette which liquify shapes into imperceptible gradients. One of the discoveries on this journey was to switch to the use of the unprimed side of the cotton canvas. He surrenders to this unprimed surface of canvas as he interacts as a catalyst with the liquid colour, says the gallery in a note by Kristine Micheal.

Epitomising the concept of slowing time, Inamdar takes the opportunity for a contemplative relation with the natural world in a purely sensorial way that involves perception, memory and cyclical natural change with a deceleration of the pace of modern technological life. He invites his audience to slowly absorb and internalize the paintings in order to really engage with the worlds of pure space that he unfolds. The austerity in the controlled use of his aesthetic palette with the use of colours that speak to him — the ochres, greys and indigo tones resonate with the threads of his thoughts that is true to his expressive feelings.

“The purified linseed oil along with turpentine is more than the mute bystander it’s assumed to be. Like the raindrops quenching the parched earth or waves moving, tossing the sand, the medium brings it all together. It slides, glides, moves and drops-responding to angles, to surface texture, to gravity, to time, leaving very little beyond traces of yellow transparency,” says the artist.

A culture of haste infiltrates our 21st century social and political spaces. Inamdar’s works calls for a deceleration, arguing that being dominated by a logic that equates speed with efficiency works counter to the very enjoyment and absorption of the imperceptible.

Paradoxically, though a master of control, he tries to remove traces of conscious shaping so that the canvas speaks directly to the viscous pigments in the oil medium and directs the emerging expression.