Hyderabad-born artist Dushyant Dhiren explores boldly the multiple identities that are part and parcel of all human life, through a series of paintings that force you to remove your own masks
Dushyant Dhiren’s first major body of work is a psycho-emotional excavation. There is a sense of being watched by dozens of selves, some in disturbing detail, some in the abstract, all fragmented yet eerily familiar.
His series of paintings titled ‘A Masked State of Mind’ questions the myth of a singular identity in the current digital age. “We perform versions of ourselves every day,” Dushyant says, “and the scary part is, I don’t think we even realise how often we shift.”
His works stem from a fascination with human duplicity — not in a moralistic sense, but just from a deeply observational plane. He quotes Oscar Wilde to set the tone: “Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.”
In ‘Deliberately Masked Idol’ the figure is lost in a storm of strokes, their face split into competing expressions. “This was the first painting that made me uncomfortable in a good way,” Dushyant shares.
In ‘Deception Bender,’ painted on three narrow wooden panels, jagged brushstrokes and deliberately skewed angles suggest the physical toll of emotional outpouring. ‘Stuck Behind’ offers a quieter take. The figure’s face seems serene, yet hands press against an unseen surface. “This one came to me in a dream,” the artist confides. “That feeling of calm, while knowing something in you wants out — that’s the entire point of the mask.”
Dushyant experiments with tenderness, brushing soft layers of oil over a faceless figure lying in silence. “This is not peace found,” he clarifies, “it’s peace chosen after a war.” Likewise, he plays with the idea of serenity as performance – a yogic pose, a Zen aura, yet the eyes remain uneased.
The quiet isn’t peaceful, it’s probing. Dushyant’s artworks are introspective pieces, suggesting that even in solitude, the mask rarely slips. His work doesn’t scream for attention. It asks for reflection. It is brave in its subtlety, nuanced in its emotion, and deeply intuitive in how it captures the spectral or insubstantial quality of human identity.
“I used to think art was about telling stories,” says Dushyant, who was born and raised in Hyderabad and trained at the Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology, Bangalore. “But now I feel it’s about revealing secrets — sometimes even about yourself.” Perhaps that’s what makes ‘A Masked State of Mind’ resonate with the viewer. It doesn’t flatter you. It doesn’t flatter the artist. It reveals the hard-to-name things we all carry — the ‘show’ of vigour, the longing for applause, the ache of knowing you’re both more and less than what people see.
Dushyant Dhiren’s solo art exhibit continues from 11th to 13th April 2025.
Quote: Dushyant experiments with tenderness, brushing soft layers of oil over a faceless figure lying in silence. “This is not peace found,” he clarifies, “it’s peace chosen after a war.” likewise, he plays with serenity as performance.
