Inflated Dreams and Fossil Schemes

Keerthana Kumar

Acrylic on Canvas

45 x 59″

Keerthana Kumar’s “Inflated Dreams And Fossil Schemes” is a striking composition – a gravity-defying exploration of time, memory, and existential flux, where classical and contemporary visual languages collide in a surreal suspension of movement. At the center of this cosmic maelstrom, a draped figure—part statue, part human—spirals through a vortex of clockwork precision, caught between the rigid constraints of time and the fragmented nature of reality.

Rendered in bold, hyper-saturated hues of electric blue, fiery gold, and deep crimson, the figure’s form recalls both ancient Greco-Roman sculpture and futuristic digital avatars. Clutching a dismantled spinal column, their hands grasp at both the organic and the artificial, as if trying to piece together the fragments of selfhood while being flung across time’s relentless march. An inflatable dinosaur emerges from one portal, while a skeletal hand reaches through another—playful nostalgia and impending mortality coexisting in a paradoxical dance.

The background’s monumental clock face, with its stark black and white Roman numerals, serves as both a literal and metaphorical anchor, reinforcing themes of fate, inevitability, and cyclical time. The painting’s geometric distortions and kaleidoscopic patterns heighten the sense of displacement, as though the very fabric of reality is glitching, forcing the viewer to question: Are we in control of time, or merely passengers in its relentless current?

Kumar’s ability to blend classicism with contemporary surrealism, rigid structure with chaotic motion, results in a work that is both intellectually and visually arresting. Temporal Displacement is more than just a representation of time—it is an experience of being caught within it, making it a compelling meditation on memory, mortality, and the impossibility of standing still in an ever-accelerating world.