In a year shaped by political tension, cultural fragmentation, and a growing uncertainty about the world, artist Dr Sasithar Gunasekaran and curator Prasanna Venkatesh have constructed a space where abstraction becomes a kind of emotional archaeology. Vengayam, showing this weekend, is not merely an art exhibition; it is a deliberate encounter with layered consciousness as well.
“I chose the name Vengayam because there are nothing but layers,” Sasithar says. His artistic method, shaped through experimentations with canvas, gaada fabric, paints, and stainers, is instinctive and almost ritualistic. “I am not trying to tell a story but rather scream at the canvas,” he explains. “The layers present so many organic forms, almost like clouds; it takes the shape one has in mind.”
In his works, forms melt into one another: a limb dissolves into vapour, a figure becomes an echo. These visual ambiguities place Sasithar’s practice in conversation with Surrealist explorations of the subconscious as autonomous terrain. This inwardness is central to the exhibition, but Vengayam is not disconnected from the world outside. “To be human is to suffer, in my opinion,” the artist says bluntly.
His works respond to global shifts and the helplessness one feels in the midst of them all. “The recent political shift to right-wing ideologies, ongoing wars, which we can only watch and not do anything… it shakes the sensitive mind to know an individual is not really able to make a change in the course of things,” he says.
Prasanna’s curation acknowledges this emotional turbulence. Kannadi Cupboard, which aims to reject the sterile “white cube” aesthetic, becomes an expanded metaphor for a world overflowing with stimuli. Rather than impose a single interpretation, Prasanna shaped the exhibition around the onion metaphor. “I’m sure the name Vengayam prepares the audience to enter a world of unfamiliarity filled with layers of familiarity. We went ahead with the metaphor of an onion. It’s layered, sometimes with too many things happening at the same time, and you barely get to address or understand one before becoming numb.”
The gallery’s floor plan mirrors this, with three to four concentric arrangements that mimic peeling, spiralling, and circling back. “We’ve tried to incorporate a lot of layering through angles, foregrounds and backgrounds,” he adds.
Sasithar’s process feels similarly open-ended. “The subconscious is a very mysterious place. I try to listen to the canvas and paint. They tell me what to do. So, the painting paints itself,” he says. This surrender recalls Automatic Drawing traditions, but Sasithar’s works stand apart because of their raw materiality—wall paints, stainers, and fabric used not as compromise but as commitment. “It kept my budget under control and also increased the volume of my work,” he says, but it also underscores his pursuit of an unpretentious, instinct-driven language.
For viewers, the first emotional response Sasithar hopes for is discomfort. “Art is meant to disturb us in the least!” he insists. Prasanna echoes this, describing each work as a self-contained world born from “days, weeks, months, and years in a single frame.” For him, the layering becomes a metaphor for living: “We become layered with experiences… It’s impossible to maintain a clean slate at all times.”
Email: shivani@newindianexpress.com
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