Indian art has yet to grow beyond its colonial associations and reach its peak. We are nowhere near the peak. But there is a shaping of self-identification. There is a definite sense of belonging to our environment and this is being reflected in our work, though in some cases a different factor plays a significant role. It may be the environment or religion. Yet, personally I feel that there is not enough of a reflection of what is happening around us. Were people really concerned about the Bhopal tragedy? Has art reflected the recent self immolation?

To me art is the exposure of a human being, the laying bare of his or her soul. In every phase of my life I have tried, through my work, to make a sinewy statement. To draw sap from all that surrounds me. Many of my images have also come to me from the depth of my dreams. Sometimes I have used these images to express my consciousness of the environment i.e. I have often tried to establish a dialectic between the conscious and the subconscious. The helpless insecure boy is still within me - sometimes he wants to escape from the relentless reality, on his wings. The young man once craved for the company of a woman - the woman of ideas. The ideas are embodied in the image of the archetypal mother (Durga) or the lady-love or the bride or the daughter or simply the enigmatic ‘She’.

I want to make a clear and definite statement about my belongingness to my environment in unambiguous visual terms and with unlaboured ease which I find in Ali Akbar’s expression."