We all know that Neanderthals painted on the walls of caves. But do we know why? Did they serve a purpose? Was that purpose purely pleasure? Or did it have deeper intent than just mere entertainment? These were the sort of questions that consumed artist Samir Mondal when he inadvertently found himself spending a year in Australia in 2020 due to pandemic-induced restrictions. It gave him the leisure to study the country’s indigenous aboriginal art in detail, and the conclusion that was cemented in his brain is this — early man used those drawings as a form of visual communication, the paintings effectively serving as a substitute for the spoken word.

Samir Mondal