Art sometimes explores shapes and patterns and even geographical elements. It’s not just a play of colours on canvases.Alappuzha native Krishnadas A V has been exploring art through sculptures and digital paintings. Popularly known as Das, the 28-year-old artist has created installations using red laterite stones, the leftover building materials.
An architect by profession, Das loves working with red laterite stones. Give a new life to these leftover stones by sculpting designs, which sometimes find a place at his own house in Alappuzha.“I have grown up observing temples and houses, including my ancestral homes. All were made using these laterite stones. In my mind, they carry the essence of our roots and traditions. I tried to explore various aspects of these stones from an artistic perspective,” says Das. As the availability of these stones has reduced, people are looking for modern alternatives. “The beauty of the red stones, which carry the pride of our roots, has now become a rare sight,” he says.
His sculptures are made out of debris like old windows, panels, abandoned pieces of laterite stones etc.
Das is against restricting viewers from making physical contact with his works. “The beauty of art can only be sensed with five senses, which include touching and feeling its textures. The audience must familiarise themselves with the work. How is that possible with only looking at it from a distance? I want my work to be felt,” he says.
One of his works, Aanikallu or ‘Cornerstone’, is made using laterite stones shaped as a nail. “To understand the beauty of Wall in Window (another work on display) one has to lay on the floor and look through the window placed above him. In Aanikallu, I have placed small diyas around the structure. Visitors can light the oil diyas and understand the beauty of stones in the light”.
Play of patterns
Along with red stone sculptures, he has also created collages using digital art. Titled Fractopolitan and Truss Passer, the framed collages — 10 of them — appear as kaleidoscopic visuals. “The series Infinity With Nothing uses the movement of the viewer, like a walk towards infinity.
It is like walking towards an unending path. You start from nothing and find infinity,” he says. The picture up close appears quite different from far away. These works may appear as abstract paintings at first glimpse. However, it’s him playing with you, giving you something to work on.
Das loves to play with contrasting ideas in art. He discerns patterns from everyday lives, things that appear mundane at a glance. The maiden solo exhibition of the artist, also a writer and an architect, was a revelation into his mind. It featured around 10 series of works, both sculptures and paintings. His digital works are superimposed on top of the other to create a collage that appears like colourful patterns.
Boats docked on the harbour, scenes from the sea, beach, buildings all appear and flow into a viewer’s mind, like poetry, forgotten lines that evoke strange emotions in you. They appear as intricate geographical patterns, with different hues arranging a play around the frame. His creations, starting from 2012, were exhibited at Alliance Française de Trivandrum recently.