EVANESCENCE

(Pic: “My Mother in Doodles”: Oil and hand-embroidered on canvas with silk threads)

Oil paintings and embroidered works by Amita Makan at KZNSA.

Pretoria based artist Amita Makan is exhibiting oil paintings and embroidered works at the KZNSA Gallery.

In 1997, a year after recovering from breast cancer, her mother, Vasanti Dhanjee Makan was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease at the age of 56. “Alzheimer’s disease is not abrupt,” explains Amita Makan. “It is insidious and nearly impossible to diagnose. It manifests in plaques and tangles in the brain, causing progressive dementia, as it gradually ravages the body and mind. There is no cure. Our family was devastated. My mother was a courageous, strong and vivacious woman. She wore beautiful, brightly coloured saris which she draped with great finesse, and in a nonchalant manner. Within minutes she would resemble a Bollywood star. As the disease relentlessly imposed itself, her sari began to hang lopsidedly over her body.

“The Alzheimer’s disease assailed her thinking, memory and behaviour. She was losing her ability to hold things, to speak, to write, to read, to remember, to drive, and to tell time. There were desperate notes scattered through the house with half-written prayers, indecipherable recipes, incorrect telephone numbers, miss-spelt names and partial addresses. Her identity and sense of self was slowly vanishing.”

When her mother visited Amita Makan in Pretoria in September 2002, she took her an envelope containing two sepia tinted studio photographs of herself as a young wife and mother, asking Amita to “look after” them as these photographs were most precious to her. The artist was struck by the date on one of the photographs, realizing that it depicted her mother at the early stages of her pregnancy with Amita and this marked the beginning of their journey together.

“Over the years, the disease relentlessly made inroads across my mother and my psychic landscapes. She became home-bound and entirely dependent on her family and caregivers for her well-being” adds Amita. “In November 2006, I started painting portraits of my mother from the photographs she had given me. I started with the portrait of her carrying me. The paintings, done in a photorealist style, were an attempt to preserve and immortalize my mother in the face of her steady deterioration. Painting these portraits became an expression of my grieving. Over the years, I painstakingly put my mother back together with my painting and embroidery, initiating this series, Evanescence.

“Upon each visit to my mother, I was forced to come to terms with the reality that her condition was worsening. She no longer spoke. The disease had silenced her. Tentatively and furtively, I started photographing my mother, and then began painting her from these photos. I searched for glimpses of her. I painted her hands in preparation for my final portrayal of her. These hands had embraced me, nurtured me, comforted me and caressed me over three decades. They now seem resigned. After twelve years of suffering, the disease reached its final stage. On the morning of September 24, 2009, in her bedroom at home, I held my mother’s hand as she took her last breath.”

Evanescence runs at the KZNSA until May 30. The KZNSA Gallery is situated at 166 Bulwer Road, Glenwood, in Durban. More information on 031 277 1703, fax 031 201 8051 or cell 082 220 0368 or visit www.kznsagallery.co.za