“You bring to a painting your own experience” – Jacob Lawrence

Dipen’s work finds meaning in his ‘journey’ as well as his imagination of the journeys experienced by the people he encounters. Therefore, trains are an important symbol in his practice. Local trains not only offer him a vantage point to observe people across socioeconomic layers, they also create literal situations of mental struggle and physical adjustments alongside constant movement. He sees thousands of human bodies constantly vying for space and adjusting themselves against their luggage as a metaphor for the struggle for survival. The never ending crowd endures, sometimes lying still like corpses despite the movement of the train, much like the vicious cycle of the poverty ridden rat-race. Dipen uses oil and charcoal on canvas to create layers of repetitive, spontaneous lines in dusky colors to visually manifest his memories in a moving train, that have become blurred over time. His visuals offer an empathetic and experiential voice.