Soumyadeep Roy is a non-binary visual artist. Formally trained in Literature and Film Studies, and Indian classical music, Soumyadeep’s works combine stories and histories, merging the different forms of art together. Soumyadeep loves narratives and sees themself as a storyteller, similar to the audio-visual practice of local patchitra painters of Bengal, India. However, having grown up in an urban setting, and having little or no access to rural narratives, Soumyadeep’s own narratives have been shaped accordingly. Their mediums have kept changing similarly. Soumyadeep likes the idea of anachronism, as it helps relate people and things who/which are otherwise spatio-temporally separated, making them inaccessible. Essentially, Soumyadeep likes the exchanges between high art and low art, which challenge the barriers that compartmentalize. Soumyadeep’s works are a reflection upon and examination of the paradoxes that are present all around.
Soumyadeep’s recording is a combination of their poem When nothing was burnt (2021), written at a juncture of the death of their five family members and two of their closest friends.
The Bengali quote is from auteur Ritwik Ghatak’s film Jukti Tokko Goppo (1974), which in itself was a reference to a Rig Vedic Sanskrit text.
The vocals by Soumyadeep is a Dhrupad (a major form of Indian Classical Music) – an aalap in Raag Bihag.
