Sarbani Bhattacharya’s body of artworks in this exhibition, her first-ever solo, is indeed an aesthetic justification of the almost instinctive manner in which two mighty, timeless concepts of unquestionable universality – the Tree of Life and the Mother and Child – connect symbolically, beaming with seeming interchangeability.  

Sarbani, who was born in 1975 in Durgapur (West Bengal),  is armed with a Bachelor in Visual Arts from the  Rabindra Bharati University in Kolkata (formerly known as Calcutta). She has been based in Singapore since 2002. One of her paintings, under the theme of Mother and Child, was selected as ‘The Painting of 2005’ at the Gnani Arts Awards 2005 in Singapore. Sarbani salutes to this Award as the force that triggered her fierce fascination with the concept of Mother and Child. The common tendency to affiliate Sarbani’s fascination with the Mother & Child to the fact that she is indeed a mother (of a six-year-old) is a superficial and convenient mode of interpretation. And so, it becomes imperative to draw due attention to her integration of the emblematic relevance of the tree within the nucleus of her subject matter. Solace is what Sarbani feels that she finds in her relationship with trees. A sparkle of excitement is evident in her eyes when Sarbani readily shares, “I was brought up in an environment that was so heavily enveloped with trees - mango trees, guava trees, custard apple trees and several sorts of flower trees. As a child, I used to talk with them. During moments of sadness, I used to run to a tree and hug it so tightly. Trees were my friends.” 

Sarbani’s acutely personal attachment with the tree is a blatant contrast to the magnitude in which the Tree of Life appears as a recurring entity in the many mythologies of the world. The Acacia tree of Saosis is the Tree of Life for the Egyptians. This tree, from which Isis and Osiris (Egyptian gods) are believed to have emerged, is revered as one that embraces life and death. In Norse mythology, Yggdrasil (an enormous ash tree) is referred to as the Tree of Life or the World Tree, which is deemed to unite all the nine worlds that form the Norse cosmology. The Banyan tree (ashwath vriksha in Sanskrit) is thought to be sacred in Hinduism, as a symbol of eternal life. In the same culture, kalpa vriksha is another sacred tree that is of a magico-mythological nature. This Tree of Life, which fulfills wishes, is believed to have emerged from samudramanthan (the churning of the  mythological milk ocean). The Bodhi tree (the Sacred Fig) holds great significance in Buddhism. Siddhartha Gautama became enlightened as the Buddha while meditating under the Bodhi tree in Bodhgaya (a city in Bihar, India).

So much said about the mystical and metaphysical approach to the Tree of Life in mythologies, there is indeed one ruling human sensibility that is outstandingly recognisable in all symbolic and mythical diagnosis of the concept - the very basic, practical need to be protected and to protect; to be nurtured and to nurture; to give and to take. Irrefutably, it is this sensibility that empowers the mother, the tree and the child, within an unperturbed, munificent fluidity. Relating to the aesthetic component in Sarbani’s paintings, she seems to possess the amiable ability to effortlessly mirror this very fluidity. Intriguingly, in some of her paintings, the child appears to play the role of the nurturer; the giver, in a reassuring stance. Roles are never static, especially in the human condition.

The Tree of Life plays the role of a metaphor for the Mother and Child, on the basis of an indispensable human relationship. On the other hand, the resilient stance that the Tree of Life occupies in the vast spectrum of world mythology, forces us to revisit and rethink its role as a metaphor. In this respect, in association with its significance in the domineering cosmic order, the Mother and Child could well be the metaphor for the Tree of Life. Within the context of nature and nurture, the Tree of Life is the macrocosm and the Mother and Child glows as the heart-wrenching microcosm.

by Vidhya Gnana Gouresan, Curator of the Exhibition