Sujith S.N.

Sujith SN’s monumental watercolor And River without a Bend, 2019—nearly seven feet long—seemed uncannily prescient. It depicts a line of people standing on a narrow jetty with plenty of space between them. Adopting different postures and rendered in profile, they appear strangely disconnected—some lost in contemplation, others staring ahead aimlessly, while still others seem to be waiting for some action to unfold. Accentuating this sense of estrangement is the artist’s dexterous use of lighting, his characters illuminated against the murky gloom of the river beside them. The work recalled an earlier watercolor of Sujith’s, not on view, Psalms of an (In)visible River, 2013, in which a stream of people trudge along listlessly and mechanically, each individual seemingly self-isolated from the rest.

10 February 2022