(Davinchi Suresh with his popular sculpture on Flood)
Flood affected Kerala has finally brought its artists out
there in the city centres to do some affordable art so that people could buy it
for Rs.1000/- to Rs.1500/-, and the money thus raised could go to the Chief
Minister’s Relief Fund. Sensing the enthusiasm and the people’s participation
in creating affordable art for the ‘flood victims’, the Kerala Lalitha Kala
Academy has come forward to conduct similar exercise in all the district
headquarters. How such enthusiasm translates into financial aid is yet to be
known. But there is one artist in Kerala who responds to social issues
immediately than any other artists could even think of it. With quick wit and
sharp design sense artist Da Vinci Suresh makes art that often finds headlines
and eyeballs, footfalls, viral exchange and of course some money.
Da Vinci Suresh is spelt as Davinchi Suresh, which is
typical Malayali spelling and most of those Malayalis who incorporate international
names are unapologetic about the spellings that they follow or employ. Media
too pick it up with the same flair and verve and it sticks. Malayalis in
general, may be because of their high literacy, know who Leonardo Da Vinci was.
Hence, the prefix, Davinchi comes as a natural qualification for anyone who is
too good at art. Malayalis love superlatives though some hopeless chap in the
so called national media call them ‘shameless’. From the safety of the
newsrooms anybody could call any ethnicity certain derogatory names. Ignore
that ignoramus journalist for the time being. This superlative qualification
fits well on the sleeves of Suresh, who hails from Kodungalloor in Thrissur,
Kerala.
(the sculpture by Davinchi Suresh dedicated to the flood victims)
Davinchi Suresh was the first artist in Kerala to respond to
the flood situation. Perhaps, many would have done it in their private studios;
or rather they were too shocked to do some art at the harrowing moments of a
deluge that levelled the castes, religions and creeds for a few days in the
relief camps and shared whatsapp videos. (I should say Avdhesh Bajpai and
Avinash Karn were two artists from North India to have responded visually and
quickly to the South Indian flood situation). Davinchi Suresh did a sculpture
in golden colour with a hemisphere as a base with an inscription August 2018.
We are more tuned to hearing 9/11, 23/11 and so on. Hence it should have been
8/18. But Suresh is no Krishnamachari Bose who would fancifully time the KMB
12/12/12. The sculpture is dedicated to the flood victims and the soldiers of
all kinds (including the civilian ones) who went into the rescue operation and
salvaged a Kerala mauled by the furious claws of water.
The sculpture depicts a boat, a few people in it, the
topographical shape of Kerala being propped up on it like rudder and sails, a
man giving his back as a footboard for the weaker sex to climb into the boat
and up above in the sky an Airforce/Navy Helicopter hovering while rescuing
people. It is primarily a symbolic sculpture therefore all what we see are not
realistic rendition of events but the rendition of events happened in reality
but extracted and made into emblematic of the flood events by the artists. When
everything failed the fishermen in Kerala came like Ocean’s Many in their
motorboats and rescued thousands of people from the all consuming muddy waters.
The Chief Minister of Kerala hailed them as the ‘Army of Kerala’. Some woman
was bleeding and a fisherman named Jaison genuflected inside the water exposing
his broad back to climb on and it was not just she who did it but many able
bodied women too. Jaison came under trolls as well as laurels but for Davinchi
Suresh it was something that people of Kerala would never forget therefore an
image worth translatable into sculpture.
(late Kalabhavan Mani by Davinchi Suresh)
This sculpture by Davinchi Suresh should be called a
mediatised sculpture. It is mediatised on two counts. First of all, the images
that are sculpturally strewn in the ensemble are already mediatised therefore
extremely familiar to the people in Kerala. Secondly, the sculpture itself went
viral/mediatised the very moment it was posted in the facebook by the artist
himself, which is his usual practice. Davinchi Suresh plays with the obvious
and the obvious symbolism that he often chooses for his sculpture makes him a
populist sculptor. Populism is a way of playing for the gallery. There are many
poets who use familiar imageries in their poetry. There are poets who create an
image out of the familiar but a few shades hiding it from over-familiarity.
Davinchi Suresh is like the former poets. He has a niche audience that is
comprised of the people who watch news for entertainment and take news as
entertainment.
Beyond the obvious realism that we see in this sculpture and
the kind of popularity that the artist has amassed not only by this sculpture
but by his earlier ventures, this work perhaps wouldn’t stay for its artistic
merit but it would definitely stay as a populist emblem of the historical flood
in the state. One may never know that at some point the Government of Kerala
would commission Davinchi Suresh to do a larger sculpture in the same vein at
some city square or circle as a permanent artistic reminder of the deluge. But
such a government is yet to come in the state; one can always hope for some
philosopher-artist-king wielding the reigns of the state government. Davinchi
Suresh in a way squanders his genius in things which are obvious. Populist
sculptures are like Mickey Mouse sculptures. Everyone knows it and everyone
understands it. But it does not worth more than a selfie. But creative sculptures
make people delve deep into the nuances of a work of art. Work of art needs
some enigma; otherwise it becomes illustration.
(Madhu by Davinchi Suresh)
Davinchi Suresh has done it before also. In February 2018, a
Adivasi young man was lynched by a literate mob in Kerala. The victim’s name
was Madhu and the crime that he did was this; he stole food and the post-mortem
reports said that he had only a piece of banana in his intestines. Davinchi
Suresh registered his protest by making a one and half feet clay sculpture
capturing the fear, anxiety, surprise, perplexity felt by that young man who
was dazed by hunger, thrashing and aggressive interrogation by the young men
who while beating him up kept taking selfies. This sculpture was not realistic
nor was it emblematic. It had a wry realism; no embellishments, no symbolism
just that confused expression. That became the enigma and it pushed the
sculpture to the realm of art. Perhaps, this was one sculpture that gave rise
to many similar sculptures and paintings than the photograph that had been used
for modelling the sculpture. Had Kerala had any perceptive museum it would have
made the sculpture into museum souvenirs of pain and the state’s high level
civility and literacy!
(sculpture and the model by Davinchi Suresh)
This artist has a lot of possibility. What Davinchi Suresh
needs is proper direction. He calls his works socially relevant and socially
protesting art. In fact, all over the world, these two phrases are in vogue these
days. But Suresh wouldn’t find his name in the hall of fame there because what
he makes are some populist sculptures. One may see the statue of Kalabhavan
Mani, an actor died prematurely, the mobile sculptures of Mohan Lal and a
portrait of Mohanlal made out of utensils. Davinchi needs curatorial direction
for he has tremendous skill and the power to execute. But his imagination is
like that of a calendar artist; one who plays with the sentiments of the
people, but not with the real emotions and intellect. Davinchi Suresh is famous
but his fame dies with the death of the events that cause his works. Hope he
would heed to the views expressed in this article. There may be many to oppose
my views for they think that the fame itself is a proof of his artistic genius.
But fame is never a proof of artistic genius. Many artists are ‘discovered’
posthumously. Today’s heroes could be tomorrow’s embarrassment. An artist can
choose to become a hero but he should be taking very special care NOT to become
tomorrow’s embarrassment.
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