January 13, 2012
Yesterday was the birthday of Swami Vivekanda which is celebrated as National Youth Day in India. As a young man, Narendran, traveled all over India in search of someone who had actually seen God. The search ended at Kalighat where he met Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. It was a Rajput king who gave Narendra the title of Swami Vivekananda. Few years ago, I got a chance to read the complete works of Vivekananda at TAMU's Evans library.
A tremendous body of work; statements frequently have the sledgehammer power that leave indelible dings in the mind. I remember that the volumes contained photocopies of the newspaper reports that followed his famous address at the Chicago World Religions Parliament in 1893. For some reason, the newspapers split his name as Swami Vive Kanada. Perhaps a familiarity with Kanada's atomism.
In one of the anecdotes, during his travels in search of holy men, he meets a sage who has been living for years in a secluded cave. Narendra tells the sage about his quest. "How many people in the world do you think believe in God?" asks the sage. Having grown up in India where it is impossible to walk a few feet without spotting a shrine or seeing a face displaying some religious symbol, Narendra answers, "around 95% of the people." The sage laughs heartily for quite a while and then says, "If people genuinely, deeply believed that there was an entity that was all powerful, merciful and all controlling that existed, then would they spend their time and energy on anything else other than the quest for such a God?!"
Some time in the late 1800s, Vivekananda traveled through Kerala for a month. Even after waiting for 3 days, he couldn't enter the Kodungaloor temple. Seeing the wretched, rigid caste system in the state he called Kerala a madhouse. More than a hundred years later, the rigidity and prevalence of the caste system has only managed to go underground.
Couple of weeks ago, the state government declared a partial holiday only for the Nair caste employees to celebrate Mannathu Padmanabhan's birthday. Nair Service Society run schools were also allowed to have a holiday. What a great way to teach kids that caste is "truth" and an "identity"!
Nothing prevents the other castes now from asking for their own partial holidays. Already, counting the weekends, 90 days are off in the working calendar in the state. That is three out of the twelve months. The last page columnist of Mathrubhumi weekly wonders if the day is near when government offices in the state will carry noticeboards along the lines of "Ezhavas, Vellalars, Parayars need not work today. Submit your caste identity cards to enjoy the holiday!"
An art gallery that calls itself "Gallery the Creant" opened at Sasthamangalam yesterday. I went to check it out this morning. It was a little into the Sasthamangalam-Pipinmoodu road, so I had to ask for direction at the cart tea stall along the road.
"Erachi kadeda appuram" (Next to the butcher's) was the helpful and accurate direction provided.
It was 10:10 (the watch ad time) which is still early for business in India. But the gallery was open. An old laborer was repairing a tap outside. Signs of minor construction all around. The gallery runs on the ground floor of an old house. On the verandah, a table with the brochure containing artists info and a guestbook. Three rooms that open through a straight line of doors had become the gallery. The young man in charge got busy with his laptop after he greeted me. I was the only visitor at that time, so I had all the time and space to take in the paintings.
Though it wasn't an installation, the indoor staircase of the house that had been cemented shut with only the hand railing still showing, left quite an impression!
"12 Y 12" exhibition features paintings from 12 young artists and opened on Jan 12, 2012. The paintings were accompanied by a small paper strip with the name of the artist and title of the painting (including Untitled). It was disappointing that there was no mention of the medium and a small write-up to go with each.
The first painting to the left of the first door was by Anu Francis. It was untitled, so I had no guiding idea. It looked like pieces of flesh or fleshy petals; may be a tank; a canon was noticeable; clearly a work that one could keep coming back to and read something more.
Next one was by Minesh Kumar who holds a BA in Mathematics and BFA in sculpture. Exquisite work packed with details. At first glance, it feels like a black and white, non-cartoon work of Mario Miranda. The accompanying paper strip was absent, so I went onto title it myself as "Park and Go".
Couple of works by Jagesh D K were titled "Budding Cosmos". Appealing idea and colors. Nimmy Melvin calls her theme "Surrounded". Two paintings of the theme in the first room had what looked like fungi masquerading as multicolored cocktail glasses, snaking upwards in one and red and white weather-socks all pointing to the left in the other. I don't think a sexual connotation was unintentional!
I forgot the exact wording of Satheesh K K's theme. It contained the words Self and Duel. Disturbing and thought provoking works. The first painting has a weaver bird, perched on the eyebrow, suturing shut the bleeding eye of a self portrait that is shirtless and wearing a devotional rosary. The tongue is stuck out ready for the blood from the eye to drop. The second work has the self seated naked in yogic posture as a plant pierces through the stuck out tongue. Symbolic richness abounds. Satheesh, the brochure tells me, won the Kerala Lalithakala Academy award for students in 2005.
Rakesh Puliyarakonam is a local boy presenting the theme of bioweapon. The common pressure cooker and cut open fruit transmute into greater depths.
I liked Sajeesh P A's paintings. They were untitled, but I think 'slave trade' or 'globalization wasteland' might fit. The first one is the view of the ocean with several types of old ships, corvettes, Dutch clipper, brig, baroque, sailing away as a fully rigged rhino with three masts stands close to us. The second painting repeats the still life potted plant along with some apples while the oceans have swallowed the ships except for the masts. Crows and black and white traffic dividers add more meaning.
Yamini's 'Music' is a riot of colors and movement while her collage 'Singer' that features the branded sewing machine suffers from the bad lighting in the room. The old fashioned light ventilation pattern high on the wall glares right into the frame of this work.
The most evocative works in the exhibition are featured in the front wall of the second room. Works of Prakashan titled "Journey of the seed" and Hochimin's "Local Call". I must have stood for a whole five minutes taking in the two paintings of 'Local Call'. Breathtaking!
The room also features Minesh's Ernad Express which provides stunning details of an old Indian train compartment.
The smaller last room features three paintings. Shanto Antony's "Clouded moon in a garbage bin" is captivating. This painting and Jagesh's 'Budding Universe' are rather timely considering the nearly month-long uncleared garbage situation that is stinking up the city.
The curator/caretaker came to chat when he saw that I was finished. He wanted to make sure that I signed the guestbook. He works as the webmaster for "koottam", the social networking site for Malayalees. In the guestbook, the very first comment is a criticism about the choice of the artist who was invited to inaugurate the gallery yesterday. This artist has been involved in the protest against the Kochi-Musiri binale that I had mentioned few notes ago that is deeply mired in corruption. Apparently the first guest doesn't think so!
I would have chatted more with this dude from Koodalloor but a car of Asianet TV channel pulled up to the gallery. He had to attend to them and I had no intention of being covered as the sole visitor.
11am, bananas bidding each other good bye in twisted bunches, ready for the dip and plunge into the slightly stale oil warming up in well sooted cast iron vessels outside the local eateries.
Yesterday evening we got the follow-up delivery of pseudomonas biocontrol agent to be applied to the terrace vegetable garden. Bought a sprayer for it on the way back from the gallery. Made for barbershops, they come with graphics of combs and scissors on them.
While combing last week's short story to tighten it by removing the "Arunisms", idea for another one struck. Liked the idea, but remembered that in a recent interview, ace music director Vidyasagar had said that he rejects a tune if he likes it the first time he hears it. If we like something at first thought or first listen, high chance that our brain is happy because it is able to quickly associate the apparently "new" with some existing memory we may not be consciously aware of.
What's truly fresh and original may not be appealing at all at the first meeting.
That's good advice!
No comments:
Post a Comment