Ratnashwar Sutradhwar

My recent body of work explores the entangled realities of digital addiction and environmental crisis, examining how both reshape perception, memory, and lived experience. I am particularly concerned with the impact of screen dependency on children, where prolonged digital exposure fragments attention and alters cognitive and emotional development.

Formally, I employ a visual language derived from pixelation and disruption. My works are constructed through repetitive grid structures and interwoven surfaces that mimic the logic of digital images. These fragmented units function like corrupted pixels, partially revealing and concealing imagery at the same time. The act of weaving and layering becomes a way to translate digital error into a tactile, physical experience.

Alongside this, I address the pervasive presence of plastic pollution in Bangladesh, especially within water ecosystems. In works such as Living with Plastic, I depict everyday environments affected by waste accumulation, where human presence and synthetic materials coexist in uneasy proximity. The persistence of plastic, much like digital saturation, operates as a slow and invasive force that reshapes both environment and consciousness.

By bringing together pixelated distortion and material layering, I create a dialogue between virtual malfunction and ecological degradation. The fractured surfaces in my paintings suggest not only technological breakdown, but also a deeper rupture in how we relate to our surroundings.

Through this practice, I aim to explore how contemporary life, shaped by accelerated technology and environmental neglect, fosters fragmented identities and unstable realities. My work ultimately navigates the space between visibility and obscurity, control and collapse, presence and disappearance.