(Banksy's Painting in Gaza Strip)
In 2015, internationally ‘unknown’ street artist (now a
gallery artist too), Banksy sneaked into the strife ridden Gaza Strip, between
Palestine and Israel and painted a few images in his typical style. One of them
has a huge kitten looking cutely but sadly at the people from the wall of a dilapidated
house that perhaps was a home for a few kids and kittens before being bombarded
by the enemy tanks and bombers. The images became sensation and in the
following years Banksy again visited the place to draw a few more images. It is
said that one of the walls was stolen by someone who knew the value of Banksy’s
art in the international market. When Banksy does anything anonymously that
catches the eyes of the world. But here in another corner of the world, if
someone predates Banksy with his works, nobody cares to acknowledge even.
(Prasad Kumar KS)
My Facebook messenger inbox has an entry from Prasad Kumar
KS, introducing himself as an artist with some words as well as some images. It
was in 2013. The market boom had turned out to be a thing of nostalgic past and
the Indian artists were back on the life theme that they knew better; struggle.
The images were interesting and since then I have been looking at his art.
Today when he reposted the works in his Facebook again, I found this striking
resemblance between the idea that Banksy would later make an international
sensation and conscience churning work of art. Prasad was no Banksy then and
even now he doesn’t aspire to be another Banksy. But Prasad’s paintings from
2013 show dilapidated homes where children are seen in absolute destitution and
deprivation. Besides, Prasad brings in some interesting references from the
modern Indian art history; two paintings of Raja Ravi Varma and one painting by
K.C.S.Panicker.
(Painting by Prasad Kumar KS)
A girl in her petticoat is standing on a broken piece of
wall and tries to see what is lying beyond after the unexpected collapse. It is
not a natural calamity for sure as the ruins do not look like that. The
scenario is obviously a landscape after a battle or a one sided attack. The collapsed
home is not a just a home; it could be a museum. A museum is also a place where
the dead ones are interned. Metaphorically speaking, the destroyed house is a
dead place where one could see two beautiful ladies in two paintings by Raja
Ravi Varma. One is Damayanti telling her message to the swan and the other one
is a rich and cultured Nair lady with a Sarod, a north Indian musical
instrument. It automatically envisions a time before the collapse when the girl
was secure and happy inside the museum or home, in the presence of these
vivacious ladies and thinking of her own future. Suddenly everything is brought
into a halt. The irony is that the works of art on the wall remain intact; only
the girl’s dreams are collapsed. If one looks at Banksy’s work you will the
same; the works of art are intact and what lie in shambles are the hope of the
children.
(Painting by Prasad Kumar KS)
(Painting by KCS Panicker)
In another body of paintings instead of Raja Ravi Varma,
Prasad brings another doyen of Indian modern art into focus. This time the wall
seems to be an external one where the last painting of KCS Panicker, ‘Dog and
Crow’ is hung. One is not sure whether it is hung there or it is willingly
painted by another graffiti artist. The images in the painting are ominous;
they herald death, an end. The black dog that gazes at the onlookers stands
there like a portal that separates the idiom of Indigenous modernism developed
by K.C.S.Panicker himself from the modern art lingua created by other artists
under the influence of western modernism. It poses the philosophical question;
what’s next? Indian art discourse was intending to overthrow indigenous
modernism in order to become more global and diversified, and usher in
Post-Modernism. Crows are the omens of souls; they are the couriers between
this and the other world, the belief goes. Vincent Vangogh had sensed it. Crows
in the Wheatfield, a predominantly yellow painting with a blue sky and a few
black crows flitting all over, waiting for something eerie to happen.
(Painting by Prasad Kumar KS)
(Crows in the Wheat field by Vangogh)
In Prasad’s painting, the Dog and Crows work is either a
reflection of what is going on in front of it. The wall with the painting,
though dilapidated, opens to a street where the garbage is dumped. There is a lonely
young boy retrieving a few things, like a boy doll, a toy guitar and a kite,
while dogs and crows scramble through the garbage. They are just ordinary dogs
and crows; not with extra sensory or terrestrial or clairvoyant powers. Against
the mundane reality, the grand modern painting stands like an accidental
reference. Prasad repeats the background image again in a couple of other
paintings where he makes permutations and combinations with dogs and crow
images. There is no obvious war there in the background like in the previous
painting. However, the war here is between the rubbish that the consumerist
world produces and the poor people who are supposed to forage through the bins
for sustenance. Garbage makes poor people; it is not the other way round. Rich
always make garbage and the poor.
(works by Banksy)
(works by Prasad Kumar KS)
In Prasad’s works one sees the collapse of a world order
where aesthetics and harmonious existence were the hallmarks. Like in the works
of Banksy later, one does not come across the images of fighter planes or
artillery tanks. But the broken walls are a proof of the war being waged in
unexpected hours. It is not that Banksy was always subtle when it came to
depicting war mongering. He has given a shell launcher to Mona Lisa and a fighter
chopper full of hearts. Prasad too has painted fighter planes and bombers
realistically and symbolically in other works, though not in this series. Provincial
artists could be prophets in the wilderness. But one day they would definitely
be recognized.
-
JohnyML
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