It was supposed to be artist Kirubakaran N’s solo show but just one week before the exhibition, he decided to turn it into a group show including his friends’ Yuvaraj and Puviyarasu’s paintings. Pictorial Journey, an ongoing exhbition at DakshinaChitra thus is as much about people, bonds and friendships as it is about rural life, dreams in mind and sketching in black and white.
Pictorial Journey brings together the works of three artist friends. While the works of Kirubakaran Narasiman and Puviyarasu K depict colours and themes of the rural space, Yuvaraj K’s works are allegorical representations of ideas formed by answering questions in his mind.
Born in the small village of Arikkal near the district of Arakkonam, Kirubakaran has grown up in a rural environment and that reflects in his paintings. After completing his Bachelors in Fine Arts from the Government College of Fine Arts, Egmore, in 2003, for the next three years, he worked as a textile designer, using water colours and painted textiles manually. To help children from villages learn art, Kirubakaran along with his two friends conducted children’s camps as and when they could.
The paintings on display bring to life the rural setup. “My drawings are based on the constitution of the landscape where I live and the life of the ordinary people who live in the places I have travelled to. To me, the lives of the ordinary and the modest people are the most genuine. The simple things they do; the simple lives they live, are so humbling. I love observing them and recording their expressions of love and care and then reflect this in my paintings,” says the artist.
He adds, “In this flow of time, it is important that we understand the landscape we are living in and the people who live there. I spoke to the people in the villages and what I gathered is what you see in my art. Using colours, I have recorded the scenes I have come across. I have used water colours to keep the picture real.”
Artist Yuvaraj is from Adyar, and blue is the colour of his dreams. As such, all his paintings are dominated by the colour blue. His artworks may look confusing, almost abstract. Well, dreams are not supposed to make sense any way. However, a closer look at his paintings on display reveals that he has drawn figures and they are a manifestation of his ideas.
“When I observe the environment and world around me, it fills me with surprise and wonder. When it is something that is related to me, or when it is something located beyond my immediate understanding, this encounter in itself manages to raise questions within me,” Yuvraj says.
“I awaken from my giddy, trance-like state. When I follow the question, I am faced with questions upon questions continuously, and I am soon subject to an answer as a result of the desperate nature of my own searching. But the answer does not leave me at peace. The answer in itself subjects me to more questioning,” the artist shares.
When his search and the levels of introspection increase, others might feel that he is changing as a result of his own seeking, he tells us. He adds, “At that instant, I awaken again. I feel that because I am putting myself to a test, I attain a certain satisfaction. In this situation, when I try to express what surrounds me, whether I do it directly or indirectly, I make use of examples. These illustrative examples that I employ take many forms, and when they are situated in this environment, they also metamorphose into various mediums. That is because opinions are things which constantly keep changing.”
Hailing from Arani, Thrivallur, Puviyarasu K usually represents his village using paints and line drawings with pen/pencils. However, recently he felt he wanted to use a different medium, so he chose to print his drawings; another reason also being that when he prints, he gets more copies of his work.
About the work on display, the artist says, “Landscape is the dynamic interaction of natural and cultural aspects where effects of changing social needs become visible. The biggest changes in the landscape structure can be observed mainly due to urbanisation. For the past three decades, the landscape from the village to city has changed at various levels in terms of cultural, political, natural, socio-economic and techonological dynamics. The shift in landscape is not just the terrain that tends to change but also the people vary in two extremes — one in chaos and another in serene circumstances.”
The main objective is to determine the nature of changes in the landscape of selected suburban area, documenting all the regional and cultural practices as pictorial depictions.”
Price on request.
On till June 1. 10 am to 6 pm.
At Kadambari Gallery, DakshinaChitra.
rupam@newindianexpress.com |@rupsjain
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