Rumki Bhaumik

Rumki Bhaumik

Statement about my practice:

       It is the story of my bonding with the surroundings created by materials and forms, that has been recreated by me as an artist to tell my story. I work in various mediums starting from painting, printmaking to embroidery and the recent sculpture which came to me as an outcome of the process of woodcut. 

My artistic journey stems out from the notion of a clash between ‘missing and seeking’. I make a home out of a house which is not mine but, I am making it mine, pointing towards the fact that home is an individual space and has a constructive quality. 

This feeling of ‘what is mine’ is a continuous chain of experiences leading towards the realization of moulding a home. How a home is being moulded and the feeling of belongingness certainly evolves from one’s childhood.

I grew up in a place not touched by the winds of development at that time i.e., in the north-eastern city of Agartala, Tripura. The feeling of ‘belongingness’ and a ‘connection with mother earth’ came from playing with mud and living in a mud house as a child. However, the meaning of such feelings changed when I visited Mumbai and then came to Baroda for pursuing my artistic career. The homes were neither fragile, nor the earth no longer soft. The environment was full of the geometric forms of modern architecture which made me its perfervid observator, seeing everything with fresh eyes. The cityscape at different stages from day till night and its three-dimensionality creates a dialogue of forms, texture and chiaroscuro, including the creation of pocket-like visuals by the surrounding architecture. 

Therefore, I create what I miss, to fulfill the gap between what I have and what I don’t have. I do not have my Agartala home but I have made home wherever I shift. It is what I try to bring into my works as well.

Works