Love in Times of Darkness

by Aakshat Sinha

The show featuring the works of Waswo X. Waswo and his collaborative team of artists of the Karkhana will be held in conjunction with Gallery Espace at Bikaner House from 4 to 14 December 2025. The Darkness and the Star will further explore the theme of spiritual awareness of mortality, which was the basis of their 2024 exhibition ‘Heaven (and that Other Place)’ at Gallery ISA in Mumbai.

Consisting of large paintings conceptualized by Waswo and brought to life by his long-time team of collaborating artists – Shankar and Chirag Kumawat, and Dalpat and Banti Jingar – the exhibition continues the use of the Mewari miniature tradition with powerful contemporary effect. Besides paintings, sculptures and videos will also be part of the exhibition.

Another day in paradise

As Tommy Livieri (Kaka) and Waswo X. Waswo (Chacha) hold hands looking across the jungle and the brook, a lone star embellishes the partly cloudy evening sky. What started as an exploration of the ephemerality of human life and the purpose of all existence in Waswo and his team’s previous show, took a literal turn to loss, longing, realization, and celebration –that which was, that which remains, and that which could possibly be.

In Waswo’s own words: “In the wake of our last exhibition, Heaven and that Other Place (Mumbai), my team and I have continued to focus on ideas of the afterlife, reincarnation, memories, and rebirth. This current exhibition, The Darkness and the Star, is almost a sequel to the former exhibition, with one major exception: my life partner of thirty-five years, passed in his sleep just a month after the Mumbai show.”

Grief can be numbing and the loss of someone so close as Kaka was to Waswo can trigger diverse emotions and coping responses. Time can heal and spirituality can soften the impact, but what helps most is the recognition of human ephemerality and nothingness when compared to the universe and the time-space construct. Then why continue . . . continue to create at all? The answer is simple and straight-forward:  for that is the only way to be, to exist, and to live on.

There was once a triptych that became a diptych and a standalone work. All life’s colours have faded. The diptych has the Fedora hat wearing, white-moustached male in his heart-print-white underpants (boxers) offering the ashes from the urn to the waterbody, standing knee-deep in the water in the left work of the diptych, while in the right one the same construct shows  the man standing upright with folded hands in respect, as blooming lotuses abound across the surface of the water. The standalone work has the lover left alone in the world bringing the lotuses to the clearing in the forest; an act of love professed and the loss acknowledged. Although the trio (from the triptych) seem to have been separated, the longing of the lover connects them all.

All life’s colours have faded, diptych

All life’s colours have faded 1

“Waswo explores the concept of mortality, but through a spiritual lens, with the hope that an awakening to life’s wonders will replace the fear and trepidation that the ideas of death and beyond cause. In the title, the artist aims for ‘that other place’ to be imagined and seen through multiple or singular religious or non-denominational lenses, reflecting both the universality of this experience, but also its very uniqueness.” – Priyanka R. Khanna (from the document on the show ‘Heaven (and that Other Place)

The inevitable direction

After the original sin of being born, one traverses along the meandering path of life, meeting and losing persons on the way, or never really finding any soulmate, for that too is the way of life. There is but an inevitable direction that one goes irrespective of where one goes. In the work by the same title, Kaka, in a white lungi leads the Fedora hat Chacha in a beige suit, away from the proverbial original sin, represented by a take on René Magritte Belgian surreal artist’s painting, The Son of Man, with a cut papaya where a face would be (in the original, the bowler-hat head is obscured by a green apple in front). The angel/devi on the horse, part blending-part visible in the tall tree forest, seems to be moving in the same direction. The entire composition is inspired by René Magritte's painting The blank signature. Through absence there's validation of existence/completion. The barefoot pair shows different postures, where the one leading – Kaka – is reaching out and moving confidently, while Chacha seems to be lovingly holding on even as he grudgingly follows Kaka’s raised arm pointing to the direction to follow, seems to blend with the forest. This makes one wonder if it is the ones who are left behind in the wake of the loss of a loved one that want to hold on to the life left while yearning for the one who has gone. 

At the tree of harmony

The archetypal lovers suffused by the harmonious medley, seem to touch upon the experience of ecstasy, The Universe in Verse (the title of a book edited by Maria Popova) in paintings such as Heaven on Earth, Closer to Heaven, Another Day in Paradise, and At the Tree of Harmony. These artworks seem to mirror ananda (bliss), the experience of perfect beauty and harmony that lifts the veil of illusion, and in those fleeting ephemeral moments, perceive grace holding the brahmand (universe) together. (Inspired by the writings of Benoy K Behl in his book, The Ajanta Caves: Ancient Paintings of Buddhist India. published in 2023 by Thames & Hudson Ltd) – Janeita Singh (from the article The Darkness and the Star: Love, Longing and Letting Go.)

The Passage

The Passage is an image of the two protagonists seated on buffalo, looking far away into the horizon where the water meets a gilded sky. Are they stargazing? Or is it a waterbody where the buffalo (the vahana of Yama,  the God of Death) stands in wait to escort the souls now released from life in this realm?

"Or is there more? We hold beliefs that comfort us with Otherworlds and Afterworlds; Metamorphosis, Transfiguration, and even the hopes of meeting our loved ones once again. We cling to possibility." – Waswo X. Waswo

The world turned upside down

While Waswo was already working on the themes of mortality and spiritual awareness in the previous series, his pining for his loved one is at the crux of this exhibition and a tribute to Kaka. For Waswo, the show is a way to realize his loss and make sense of it. In World turned upside down, Kaka is flying away, carried by a swan, accompanied by a pointed figure, while Chacha remains in a world upside down with his feet in clouds, looking out  through a telescope to the moon, or the reflection in water,  or maybe for the one no longer close enough to hold in arms.

"This exhibition is not meant to be dour or met with weeping eyes. It is an exhibition that is actually filled with joy. The joy of a wider consciousness that spirituality endows us with. There is paradise on Earth, and paradise in the wider heavens." – Waswo X. Waswo

Thomas of the White Doves

The show The Darkness and the Star will be on view at Bikaner House from 4th to 14th December 2025.

(All images are courtesy of the artist Waswo X. Waswo and Team.)

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Aakshat Sinha is an artist and curator. He also writes poetry and has created and published comics. He is the Founding Partner of artamour.