(artist Balamurali Krishnan)
“The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory
against forgetting.”
-
Milan Kundera (The Book of Laughter and
Forgetting)
Allappuzha (Kerala) based artist, Balamurali Krishnan’s
latest suite of drawings somehow becomes a visual extension of Kundera’s
oft-quoted statement though the artist has not intended it to be so. Titled ‘Onattukara
Memories,’ the exhibition cannot just wish away the artist’s struggle against
both power and forgetting. Power, in many ways demands forgetting. Remembrance
is one way of man’s refusal to move and to be removed. When personal
resistances become feeble against the mighty installations of power, memory
opens another front of resistance through the registration of it in fragile
mediums that overtly do not threaten the power but by passing the memorial
traces to the onlookers infect them with a strange sort of remorse which could
goad the infected to stand up in resistance to protect the last patches of survival
before it goes into oblivion. In that sense remorse is a sudden awakening into the
light of remembrance; guiltless existence is a forgetful existence. The danger
of forgetful existence is that it could be forgettable existence too.
Balamurali Krishnan not only as an artist but also as a living human being does
not want to have a forgettable existence. However fragile a medium that drawing
is, it could burn the edifices of power provided they are seen, recognized and
understood.
(work by Balamurali Krishnan)
Onattukara is a celebrated land in the topographical history
of Kerala for its peculiar status as one of the strongest centers of Buddhism
in the state before the eclectic and egalitarian religion was defeated by Hinduism
using violent means of destruction and persecution though both these acts of
annihilation were marked in the general history of the country as the defeat of
Buddhism at the hands of the philosophical and logical arguments of Hinduism. The
place names, space names, names of the temples and so on upon the etymological
analysis reveal the fact that they all were part and parcel of the Buddhist life
practices before its total decimation. Buddhism was one religion that deliberately
collapsed the caste system which was rampant (and still is) in Hinduism and
most of the people who either entered the fold as followers or just became
believers even while practicing their pagan beliefs were coming from the ‘depressed
classes’ or the lower castes. Traditionally the depressed classes worked in the
fields as farmhands, crafts people and other menial workers. Buddhism had given
them respect and a worthy social and emotional life. With the aggressive engagement
of Hinduism with the compassionate Buddhist religion, the believers were once
again suppressed vehemently to their lower positions. The next phase was of
integration while maintaining the caste system, religious symbols were co-opted
and the physical evidences of the erstwhile Buddhism were destroyed by force.
Those evidences that withstood the vandalism were forced to remain in obscurity
through neglect.
(Work by Balamurali Krishnan)
The integrated Buddhism in Onattukara region like elsewhere
survived in memories of the people and in the general memories of the land. The
replacements done to the place names and to the worship areas however did not
cause total oblivion. Like the memories of a historical wound they remained in
the minds of the people in the area. What carried the resistance and compassion
of Buddhism was the land itself. Its precious paddy fields, ponds, orchards, ‘dark’
worshipping practices, folklores and general public memory through festivals
and collective social activities remained the repositories of Buddhism. However,
the ‘development’ models pursued by both the local governments under the pressure
of the global forces are now causing the decimation of such memories. Joining
hands with the capitalist market the right wing forces (read Hindutva forces)
now take away the paddy fields and other ecological treasures to convert all
those areas into townships, apartment complexes, super-markets and so on. When
such social phenomena happen people think that this is how they progress! But
only the sensitive and creative ones realize and recognize the need for having
memories of the losing lands and their lore.
(Work by Balamurali Krishnan)
There is something autobiographical about this suite of
drawings by Balamurali Krishnan. He had been living in the Northern part of
Kerala for almost two and half decades and when he came back to his ‘Onattukara’
he found the fast receding farm lands and the fast proceeding constructions of
high-rises. The artist felt that the land had been irretrievably lost; today
the land has only its integrated festivals, social rituals and most importantly
the memories held dear by the people as individuals and as collectives.
Perhaps, a social movement or a political struggle would bring attention to the
slow and at times fast erasure of history from the face of earth by the powerful
lobby. But Balamurali Krishanan knows for sure that such collective resistances,
with its generic nature in various parts of Kerala have lost their momentum and
it needs a new thrust which can be achieved by aesthetical interventions.
Hence, this suite of drawings has a purpose; the purpose of remembering,
registering and resisting. Aesthetical interventions may not be so handy when
it comes to the direct confrontation with the rich and powerful who become
instrumental in the act of forgetting, which the artist thinks need to be
countered by the art of remembering. But aesthetical interventions could
function like social catalysts that could provoke the ‘remembrance’ of the
people in general.
(Work by Balamurali Krishnan)
Most of the works in this suite are large scale drawings
done on paper with broad and thick charcoal sticks. The black and white-ness
strips the possible narratives of their literary embellishments and places the
images starkly before the eyes of the onlookers. The monochromatic color
pattern that Balamurali Krishnan has chosen for the present suite of drawings
makes the memories separated from the immediacy of time that brings so many inextricable
things that could muddle our viewing as well as thinking process. Thus
projected into the eternal time of remembrance the images exist in history as
narratives demanding interpretative attention. Also there is a sort of
democratic treatment of the events and images that are pressed into combined
visual imageries when they are treated in black and white; each image demands
equal attention or rather the onlooker is tend to look at each image evenly
before inferring the meanings he or she wants to. The black and white scheme
also symbolically turns the ecological representations their possible collapse
and abandonment. Each portion of the land that is dealt with could become a
memory trace as well as a living reality.
(work by Balamurali Krishnan)
One of the large works is created out of a series of small
works which gives it a kaleidoscopic presence. The historical memory or the
memory of history of the place is brought in to each frame like vignettes so
precious and miniature-like demanding closer observation which could end in
introspection leading to retrospective aspects of history. This frame is the
real ‘memory’ of Onattukara because of the repeated images of Buddhism and
Hinduism. One could see how the Buddhist history has become portable statues
which could co-opted into the dominant narrative. Also one could witness the horrifying
presence of the Brahminical acts. While the Brahminical presence is given fully
identifiable human forms the Buddhist presence is contained in the emblematic
human figures. We do not see the historical confrontation between them but we
do see how the defeat of Buddhism and the Buddhists faithful has been happening
in the personal levels. We see the ‘birth’ of the downtrodden classes as they
are divested of their right over the land and their own bodies denying autonomy
and agency to act in the society and exercise their free will.
(work by Balamurali Krishnan)
C.Ayyappan, a famous short story writer had written the
mental state of a character like this: He was embarrassed and shocked when he
recognized that he had got down in a wrong and strange bus stop. Here,
Balamurali Krishnan’s works give us this feeling that the artist has got down
in the right bus stop but he is shocked in realizing how unfamiliar the ‘familiar’
place/s look. Each work has that ‘strangeness in mind’ feeling. In most of the
large scale works we see the foreground and middle ground covered by the dying
or dead land; in some, it is a scene seen from a broken threshold. In yet another
one, it is a huge rupture passing through an erstwhile fertile land. In each
work, in the horizon line we see the representatives of progress and
development moving steadily in disciplined lines. One the pivotal works has a
central image of a dumpster truck ejecting a whole land with its inhabitants
including rats, snakes, birds, animals and human beings along with houses and
trees as if all of them were just scrap objects. It is the most painful picture
of dispossession and displacement not only of people and their habitats but of
the memories that each displaced being and object has carried.
(work by Balamurali Krishnan)
I do not know whether history, memory, politics and the land
can be treated separately. In Balamurali Krishnan’s works they all come
together as inseparable constituents of a sincere narrative. History is the
outcome of a political process and from the political process a history is
generated or continued. In that way it is mutually regenerative. Memory becomes
the nutrients in this process and together they constitute the meaning of the
land. Hence, Balamurali Krishnan’s depiction of Onattukara is not just a
snapshot of the land rendered by hand but they speak of its history and
politics through memories. David Hockney, in one of his conversations says how
photographs are two dimensional for their inability in capturing the third dimension.
The third dimension he speaks about is not spatial in the strict sense. It is
about the dimension created by the artist himself and in him the snapshots
achieves depth which again is not spatial but of history, politics and memory.
A must see exhibition.
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