I thought I knew.2024#5 Print

Smeya explores a narrative structure in her work where one story frames another like a story-within-a-story structure. Each element depicted in her work serves as a medium for conveying meaning, and she is continually researching and developing new expressions that deliberately move away from traditional spatial representations. Her main series, The Twelve Zodiac Animals (Protectors of the Sky and Earth), uses metaphors for conveying meaning. By likening human desires to the Ten Symbols of Longevity, Seumeya aims to capture dreams and wishes similar to those found in fairy tales. In the context of 21st-century issues, she integrates the image of a forest to weave fairy-tale-like narratives about modern life. For instance, a cow that has overcome a difficult mountain meets a pig in a flower field, symbolizing peace and hope, and her work reflects a perspective on the world akin to Alice's encounter with the White Rabbit in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. To the artist, the color green is like music, and her paintings, set against the backdrop of a forest where nature and animals coexist, can be seen as a report on a green world.