:: Culture Plus

Over the moon

Uma Nair

After having taught Sylvia Plath’s Mirror to my tenth graders in school, I was reading Ted Hughes poems. Suddenly at the end of the analogy came his poem The Moon and Little Freida.While I was in the midst of it Poonam Sahi took me to see her suite of works that will go on the walls of Alliance Francaise on Wednesday. I couldn’t believe what I saw. A series on the moon. A series of women and men holding, caressing and walking with the moon.

The moon is a symbol of romance in art, music, literature and in our minds. I recalled Hughes’ first line. And I liked the way the first line spreads a canvas: "a cool small evening": and the rest of the poem shines a light only on selected, disconnected areas of the canvas. Looking at Poonam’s works which are the beginning of a sojourn, it’s about as far as you can get from a work that brims in emotional quotient; the artist/designer in Poonam contributes twelve or thirteen almost independent images but lets the viewer assemble them at will. And the tenses are indeed curious and interesting, too: the works are an instantaneous snapshot, lasting only a second or so: all the actions are either past or present but captured as a moment.

The only action is the manner in which the moon is caught in human hands. The moon then becomes a symbol of everyday eventualities rather than the symbol of romance.

"There is a difference from being romanced to wanting romance," says Poonam. "I want romance in every day life… I want to make life worth it and I myself am responsible for that." She explains further with tales from Lord Krishna.

"Krishna wanted the moon to play with. I do too. I want it to be available to me at all times to enjoy it. So that it is available to hold, to embrace, to tender, to examine. To be able to weave romance in my life all the time and when I want it. When I see a beautiful moon my skin tingles and my breath sighs. When I bring the moon (down to earth) into my paintings I want the viewer to experience the same feelings. How wonderful to be able to enjoy this at all times.’

The crescent moon that she creates on her canvasses moves beyond the mystic. The night is a vacuous mossy green and you wonder at the atmosphere she creates with clouds billowing in their fluffed up symbolism.

"There is an atmosphere of secrecy around the night. A night with a beautiful moon brings about personal feelings and yearnings. Perhaps a yearning to connect with the cosmos… to validate your existence in this world? All these emotions are not understood completely. So there is an exploration of feelings… as you go from canvas to canvas. Sometimes I want to contemplate, at times I want to sing and then again I just want to enjoy the moment while I get on with mundane chores… in the assurance that all is well in my world," she says.

Curious how she relates the moon to many women. "The Moon is the one of the constant features in one’s life. It may go through various stages… full, crescent, etc. but it will be always be there. So in many ways it reminds us of the highs and lows in ones life, the change in ones life and then there is the assurance of everything being cyclical. the rule of nature, the rule of transition. So basically the characters of my paintings are taking their energy and inspiration from the moon. If the moon goes through transition, then it is natural for us to do so."

This show recalls that famed song Blue Moon. The lyrics presumably refer to an English idiomatic expression: "once in a blue moon".

The narrator of the song is relating a stroke of luck so unlikely that it must have taken place under a blue moon. The title relies on a play on words, since blue is also the colour of melancholy, and indeed the narrator is sad and lonely.

Coming back to the Hughes poem, he says: "The moon has stepped back like an artist gazing amazed at a work/That points at him amazed. This show personifies that symbolism amidst all else.