A deeply spiritual and emotionally charged piece, Cerise XIII, like many of Vipeksha’s other works, is an attempt to create a dialogue between the artist and the viewer, a part of their realities that is common, a mood of reflection that connects two entities across space and time. Solitude is found with the limited use of colour, creating an enveloping, transcendental feeling. The painting seemingly is a work of abstract universalism—making one wonder whether the ebb and flow of the red colour is representative of the cosmos, our minds or our emotions.

Colours are usually taken as universal symbols, with the colour cerise representing intense passion, femininity and an energy for life. However, it is incredibly versatile and this pinkish-red hue has varied cultural connotations. The painting evokes the Sanskrit aesthetic terms rasa and raga, rooted in the word ranj, meaning red. Rasa is centred on the viewer, evoking a heightened sense of awareness or a mood. Raga can be inferred as an attachment dictated through the colour red, or can mean “inflamed with passion”. With the whole painting blazing with the colour red, it gives one the sense of desperate longing, a manifestation of our psyche, vulnerable yet desiring. The painting calls us to internally explore, rise to a state of mindfulness of our shared belonging and realise our consciousness.