Synkroniciti is excited to welcome Dr. Binoy Paul, a visual artist working in multimedia sculpture. His artwork fuses traditional Indian forms and materials with modern skill and concepts. We feature three varied explorations of the human form in an article entitled “Personal and Universal: Indian Identity and Collective Humanity in the Artwork of Dr. Binoy Paul.” “Holy Bowl” is a beautiful terra cotta vessel that explores human suffering. A series of figures huddle together in the bottom of the bowl while solitary figures line the rim, all of them with their faces upturned, eyes squinted and mouths open in expression of grief or pain. We asks ourselves if it is better to be one of the elevated figures or one of the lowly, since the lowly seem to have each other while the more prominent are alone and exposed. “Charak Festival” shows two figures swinging from the Charak tree, a tall trunk devoid of greenery. This is part of a traditional Hindu festival ceremony in which holy pilgrims place hooks into the skin of their backs and do a sort of aerial dance. The banning of the practice by the colonial British only served to drive it deeper into Indian consciousness and today it flourishes. Finally, “Being Afloat,” which was the runner-up in our cover contest for the issue, explores a more collective understanding of humanity. Plastic figures decorated with traditional gamcha fabric lie upon a pond. Does this signify the mutability of human life? The way we treat each other as disposable? You’ll have to see them to decide.
Experience Binoy’s fascinating art in the newest issue of Synkroniciti, “Curiosity,” now available for purchase and digital download here: https://synkroniciti.com/the-magazine/purchase-individual-issues/.
Binoy Paul lives in the remote North-Eastern region of India known as Barak Valley. He holds a Ph. D, Post Graduate, and Bachelor in Visual Art in Sculpture from the Department of Visual Arts, Assam University, Silchar. He has won honors in many competitions including the Momento Awards 2018, by DOT Art Foundation, Delhi; North-East zone gold medal award for sculpture 2018, and Merit Award for North- East Zone in the category of Sculpture, by Prafulla Dahanukar Art Foundation, Mumbai. He is also the recipient of the ART FOR HOPE 2023 GRANT by Hyundai Motor India Foundation and the KHOJ SUPPORT GRANT 2020 by Khoj International Artist Association, New Delhi. He has participated in more than 45 art camps and workshops and more than 40 group exhibition shows.