You painted a smile Painting

acrylic paint on hand-made sekishu-shi paper This little gem is another of Darukhanawala’s inimitable cameos. It’s one of those pictures you can look at for months, years and still see something different every time. The self-referentiality of painting in its deepest multivalent complexity alongside the painting of a smile in all its social, phatic, direct superficiality reflects the duality at the heart of the this work: one can feel the speed and roughness of application alongside the instinctive skill in creating such a tight, bursting, energetic image. This duality is reflected in the contrast between the ancient Japanese art of hand-made paper alongside the chemical artificiality of acrylic paint. There is so much going on in this painting, and yet, as with all Darukhanawala’s unique creations, the image provides an unmediated, direct communication with its viewer, a communication that has little to do with the artist’s intentions and everything to do with the personal link between the image, its psychological dimensions and the psychology, thoughts and emotions of the viewer. It is this that makes the uncertain ambiguity inherent Darukhanawala’s art rich and full of meaning without ever descending into an anything-goes vagueness. He never says too much, never overstates or defines. As viewer, you have to decide that for yourself what and how to see, hear and interpret; therein the excitement of this artist’s ever-renewing creations. As the song goes: ‘You painted a smile, and you dress all the while to excite me.’ Dimensions above include frame (unframed: 46 x 75 mm.)