Kathi: Carving stories with toothpicks

When you enter an exhibition called 'Kathi Drawings and others', the expectation is generally ink-based monotonic artworks where the strokes, patterns and textures are the name of the game. But, Ranjit Das flips the script on you. He uses toothpicks, out of everything else, to create minimalistic, vibrant landscapes that make you wonder how someone can create so much out of so little.

It is an exhibition that leaves a quiet but lasting impression, one that reveals itself slowly over time. The works might initially seem sparse, even restrained, but the longer you stand with them, the more they begin to settle in. There is a gentle stillness running through the exhibition, shaped just as much by what is left unsaid as by what is placed on the canvas.

Being held at Galleri Kaya till 15 May, it hosts a new series of paintings by seasoned Ranjit Das. He stands as a commanding figure in contemporary Bangladeshi art. His work is characterised by a constant stylistic evolution, where personal narratives blend with social and cultural commentary to bleed across large-scale canvases. By layering oil, acrylic, and diverse materials, Das creates complex juxtapositions that weave together form and profound meaning. 

And his stylistic evolution continues into this series as well. Ranjit decides to take a more minimalist approach. Like the name suggests, he doesn't use the conventional tools to form a painting but instead chooses to use toothpicks. Yes, toothpicks.

In a conversation with Goutam Chakraborty, the director and founder of Galleri Kaya, recalled what prompted this art series. During Galleri Kaya's first Art Trip to Koh Samed, Thailand in 2013, a day of unrelenting rain drove Das and the late sculptor Hamiduzzaman Khan indoors, where they turned to watercolour practice.

"It was there, in that rain-soaked stillness, that Das reached not for a brush but for a toothpick, kathi, and began to draw". What emerged from that was a method that would come to define his new lineup of work: spare, gestural, and luminous in its emptiness. 

There is great discipline concealed within this apparent simplicity. To make a broad stroke and then stop requires a mastery that is less about technical control and more about the alignment of hand, mind, and intention. 

The spontaneity of the toothpick method enforces this. There is no correcting a kathi stroke once it is laid. The artist must arrive ready, must know what the mark means before it is made. The impossibility of erasing a toothpick stroke once it is laid — demands that the hand and mind arrive together. Mastery, here, is not the mastery of control but of readiness.

Visually, the artworks do share a resemblance to some Chinese folk art but instead of being heavily detailed, Ranjit Das uses rapid and heavier strokes to paint in his subject. He does not try to fill in the canvas, but lets his strokes and negative space do the talking. His approach to using this very unique medium in bright, luminous colors allows him to create forms that invite every viewer into the scene.

But, that is just a portion of the composition. One of the more obvious and bigger players in his compositions is not what he paints, but how much he does not. "Negative space becomes a storyteller in every artwork of his, capitalising on the minimalist essence the exhibition is centered around. He refuses to overexplain or over-saturate his work, and leaves it to the audience to fill in the gaps by themselves", elaborated Goutam on how a skilled artist like Ranjit uses every bit of a canvas to tell a story..

He extends that idea into the themes of his work. The subjects lean toward landscape: rural, unhurried, melancholic. Not the urban geometry of Dhaka but the open, vanishing world of rivers and fields — a Bangladesh seen from memory rather than from the window. There is nostalgia here, but not sentimentality. 

His composition and tone go hand in hand so beautifully, it leaves the audience alone to feel the landscapes. Not by making them interpret it, but by tapping into their memories of a distant past.

TBS Picks:

Fishing Boats

Medium: Watercolour and charcoal on paper

Any viewer can immediately notice the irregular flow of the strokes. After the original painting was accidentally left out in the rain overnight on Das's hotel room balcony at Cox's Bazaar, he adapted it with great sensitivity, transforming it into something quietly ethereal. The unevenness of the strokes deepens the melancholy of the red, making it feel less like an ending and more like the beginning of something new.

Huff-4

Medium: Watercolour on paper

This piece feels closer to the works of Ranjit Das we are more familiar with. With just a few simple strokes, he strips the portrait back to its essentials, allowing its sincerity and quiet simplicity to come through. The face is left undefined, turning it into a more universal representation of women.

Inscription-3

Medium: Ink and watercolour on paper

This work stands apart from the others. Rather than focusing on form, the composition centres on an inscription, with blots spreading and bleeding around it. The text appears to be a short poem on love and longing, possibly reflecting the artist's own thoughts and emotions at the time of its making.