Eclectic and Impatient: Shyam Aramban’s Art

 

 

(Artist Shyam Aramban)

He is eclectic, so is his art. He could play string instruments and if need be tap a bit on the metal plates to bring out rhythm and music. He could also draw and paint, and when he doesn’t do either he is a trigger happy photographer. Wanderlust has struck him badly and he seems to have trusted his feet than his bottom. And he does use it and its result is evident in his solo exhibition at the Lalitha Kala Academy Gallery, Kalady. I have forgotten to mention his name; here is he is, Shyam Aramban, a BFA in Painting from the Kalady University and MFA from the illustrious Banaras Hindu University.

 

(Works by Shyam Aramban)

Shyam Aramban’s eclecticism shows in most of his paintings for he flitters between styles and formats as if he is natural in this kind of oscillation. But the strain that he tries to bring in through the lines and brush strokes more or less remains the same as his forte lies in depicting in everyday life activities of human beings, at times in a stylized realistic fashion and at other times in absolutely symbolic manner. Exaggeration of human figures and the stylistic variants that he chooses to delve in show the journeys that he has taken. Even if it is not said in his biodata, a sharp eye could discern, from the themes and styles, the lands that he has passed through and passed by, inspired and influenced at each juncture of confrontation.

 

(Works by Shyam Aramban)

Surprise is the element that he maintains in his artistic demeanour; he could be excited by the moments that he feels and witnesses. When he is in Varanasi he breaths in all what is in offering in terms of visuals. Kashi is the popular name that Varanasi or Banaras has among the pilgrims. And Shyam underlines his approach to the place as a pilgrim, someone who seeks deliverance but doesn’t think that he would live there for long though contrary to the belief may happen, and soaks the scenes and reproduces them in multiple tiers on the single pictorial surface using stylized lines. Of late his works have taken more linear fashion like a graphic illustrator and through these lines his captures the life and times of the places that he visits. Varanasi and Shantiniketan, two places that he is enamoured by find expression in that fashion in his works. One could discern the places through the dominant presence of iconic images; like Santal Family sculpture or Rabindranath Tagore, or Shiv ling and ghats.

 

(Works by Shyam Aramban)

When in Rome behave like a Roman is the motto that Shyam follows, it seems. He paints what he sees when he is in Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh. With its die hard classical etiquette and Nawabi culture, Lucknow stands tall despite the political perversity rules the state. Shyam does not think much about the political matters but making the landscape replete with Muslim culture and architecture, he seems to say something allegorically; faith in humanity and cohabiting with different religious faiths. He revels in his graphic verve and it is starkly different from the early works where Shyam seems to be strongly influenced initially by the works of Tyeb Mehta and a little by Manjit Bawa. At some point Shyam is greatly moved by the lines of Jogen Chowdhury. But these influences do not stop him from being fast and furious in making his art with some kind of freshness. As I mentioned before, his eclecticism is in bathing in different streams at once unapologetically.

 

(Works by Shyam Aramban)

However, a crucial question remains; how long an artist could flitter between different styles? Even if the wandering is for finding a path before undertaking a long journey, or it is a reveling in an unchartered landscape, for an artist settling in some path or style is important despite the variations in mediums and themes. One could sing the same raga in many voices and also sing many ragas in one voice. Identity is connected to the latter; finding one’s voice is important for a singer; finding one’s own stylistic approach to the creation of visuals is important for the artist. That is the virtual footprint of an artist; it is a genetic continuity that remains invisible but palpable from one work to another. Shyam Aramban may be thinking about it sooner than later.

 

(Works by Shyam Aramban)

One good thing about Shyam Aramban’s art is that he is not burdened by the typical imageries usually seen dominating the young Malayali artists. Also he is free from the photorealistic bragging of painterly skills. Not that Shyam has skills but he uses it for a different purpose. Spontaneity and impatience are something that rule Shyam’s works for the time being. The anxieties of his age, his sexual fantasies and contemplations peep out even if he does not want to make them so obvious, in some of his works. The latest works are iconic forms generated from his life in Banaras. But he has cleverly turned them into icons of a lost faith in which the natural elements were worshipped in anthropomorphic forms. It is immaterial whether he settles down in his life or not but it is imperative for an artist to settle in his expressions; even Basquiat, despite his absolutely anarchic life, had a visual language of his own, or least that could tell the world that it was Basquiat’s.

 

-JohnyML

Beautification and Mural making are two different Things’: Trespassers and their Public Art

  

(Artist Vishnupriyan spearheading the Trespassers Project)

They are ten and call themselves ‘Trespassers’. The logo is impressive; a black cat carrying a while space between its body and a flourishing tail. They remind one of the famous graffiti artists in the US, ‘Space-catcher’. Space-catcher’ grabs space; it could be an inconspicuous space under a bridge or a ledge. It could be a wall or a building façade; or even a moving bus. This incognito artist, like Banksy does only one thing; he grabs space and people’s eyeballs. He does not do much other than sticking a logo, a small android image. But he seems to say, look I am here, I am an artist and I make art, and in spaces unimaginable my works will confront you at the most unexpected moments. ‘Trespassers’ differs fundamentally from the Space-catcher, but they evoke something similar.

 

(Trespassers mural projects)

It all started in 2018. Vishnupriyan, an artist who is currently pursuing a PhD from the Kalamandalam deemed university in a north Kerala performance art form, after finishing his post graduate course in painting from the Kaladi Sri Sankaracharya University, decided to launch a graffiti program with the help of his friends namely Arjun Gopi, Ambadi Kannan, Bashar, Jinil Manikandan, Amith, Sreeeag, Pranav Prabhakaran, Vishnukumar and Sijoy Poulose, all graduates or post graduates from the same university. They had a manifesto; they wanted to take art to the people as they realized a majority of them do not go to the art galleries and have a lot of skepticism towards art. These artists also thought that they could eke out a living from doing public art. Sooner than later they found out that graffiti art does not pay, but their passion for the public art was so much that they embarked on a difficult journey by making visuals in the public spaces.

 

(Trespassers mural projects)

Trespassing is all about encroaching a place or space without permission often inviting persecution. These artists trespass with permission and the visual they create in the walls and building facades and any available spaces literally trespass into the mindscape and visualscape of the people around. Their initial work was in their alma mater itself. They painted huge murals in the campus and they were offered Rs.100 per square feet. They could make some money and they decided to keep aside ten per cent of the amount for furthering the activities of the group and divided rest equally between them. Most of them are doing their higher studies while engaging with the Trespassers activities. So far they have created around thirty murals in the villages and towns; a couple of them were funded by the local bodies and all the other works were self-funded, deriving artistic satisfaction from the works and the public response they get.

(Trespassers mural projects)

 

No funds but how do they manage? Vishnupriyan has the answer. “We choose spaces for doing murals near friends’ homes. That makes the food and accommodation free. We go to the local hardware shops that sell plastic emulsion and enamel paints and explain our case. They give us paints and a lot of encouragement.” Armed with supplies they go around the village and collect stories from the elders and local enthusiasts. “We ask them what kind of images they would like to see in a public mural. Lot of them tells us about the images they want to see again and again. So we have an archive of local lore, human stories and their visual imaginations. Then we start working on the mural.” Interestingly, while working some people give them company and even give creative inputs making the mural a real public art project.

(Trespassers mural projects)

If there is a will there is a way; this ongoing mural project of the Trespassers proves the adage again. As ten people collaborate in a single visual project there could be differences of opinion emerging at any moment. “We do not have any issues in developing the project visually. We work in tandem and each ensemble of image gives rise to another set of images and as all the artists are aware of the local stories they go by them and keep the color strains more or less the same.” However, only when they work on very large scale projects, they visit the site in advance, see the possibilities and make an initial sketch before starting the actual work,” says Vishnupriyan and adds that, “It is all about incorporating a window, a flight of steps or an air-conditioner duct or something.”

 

(Trespassers mural projects)

Vishnupriyan also has done a huge mural project in his own village, Pang. One of the images is of an old woman with no upper garment. She is seen sitting in the middle of some men and playing cards. “People immediately notice a half-naked woman amidst men playing cards. She is also playing cards and smoking beedis.” This image comes from a woman in real life in Pang village. She used to roam around without a blouse and did all what men did, including playing cards and smoking beedis. Vishnupriyan is because people are growing fond of the work as days pass by. Nobody has made any objection to the works of the Trespassers. But there are incidents when certain images in their murals have offended the public sentiments.

 

(Trespassers mural projects)

“We did a mural in a market. The central image was a pig. The Muslim shop owner thought that the presence of a swine in our mural was deliberate and he said that it hurt his sentiments. Finally we had to do some adjustments,” says Vishnupriyan. These artists are still struggling to make money and they are sure that by doing murals alone they cannot survive. But they do have hope as they believe in the power of art in creating a visual sensibility. “What we lack is the training of the public eye. We intend to create one,” “Vishnupriyan beams with confidence when he says this. What about the idea of beautifying the public places through art, I ask. Vishnupriyan says that while that is possible this thought has never crossed his mind. “Beautification is not the idea behind our projects. None of us has thought about making ‘beautiful’ paintings on the public walls. We create paintings resonating with the surroundings and we hope people would see their own local histories in it and feel proud of it,” he says.

 

(Trespassers mural projects)

Government of Kerala has decided to spend lakhs of rupees for beautifying cities including Trivandrum city. It is urgent that the government and the Minister of Tourism see these young artists’ efforts in creating visual sensibility among the public, without seeking any financial aid from the government. Out of the thirty murals that they have done so far only two of them have got financial aid; one from Kalady University and the other from the Koilandi Municipal Corporation. These artists work as daily wage earners. It is a shame that our authorities make these educated artists toil like migrant laborers. It is high time that they are honored and funded for doing more works all over Kerala. I may even say that the third phase of the Trivandrum beautification project these artists should be invited as special guests and funded them adequately to make wonderful murals that ‘beautifying’ the city with some pre-selected artists.

 

-JohnyML

Remembrance of Things Past and Recent: The Works of Syed Ali Sarvat Jafri

(Artist Syed Ali Sarvat Jafri)

‘Garden of Remembrance’ sounds like the Garden of Eden. May be they go together for Eden is an eternal remembrance of the things past and lost due to human folly. Hold on! Here none is accusing a woman who has done the deed so that the humans are force-ejected by the God. However, remembrance of a garden definitely foretells an ouster from the places those friendly, habitable and conflicts contained amicably. An artist hailing from erstwhile Faizabad, which is now ‘Ayodhya’, when he names his latest exhibition as a ‘Garden of Remembrance,’ one cannot overlook the Eden from where so many humans were ousted due to aggressive politico-cultural forces. Syed Ali Sarvat Jafri is the artist and if his name doesn’t tell the history of a syncretic India, his works does.

(Works by Syed Ali Sarvat Jafri)

Cultural specificity and the linguistic uniqueness make Sarvat Jafri’s works a bit dense despite the simplistic format of clay tablets that he has chosen for making them. The Urdu script that has now been become a byword for the classical, cultural, North-Indian Muslims, is deliberately used for questioning or rather problematizing the very same identity fixation. Urdu, a language of North India was never an Islamic language till Devnagari script got Hindu overtones. True the language was the medium of finesse and sophistication, of poetry and love, of intoxication and dreams, and a cosmopolitan life. Perhaps, all these virtues were present in the Islamic life of the North, especially in the Audh region, the Nawabi courts there. Sarvat Jafri belongs to one of the Nawab families, keeping its sophistication of language, manners and literary and artistic cultures intact against all odds.

(Works by Syed Ali Sarvat Jafri)

The general mood of Sarvat Jafri’s works is of mourning. Perhaps, it’s my misreading for the artist may be celebrating his culture especially in a time when a name could invoke suspicion and a particular food could land someone in Jail. In a country where justice is skewed and mobs deliver blind justice in the streets celebrating a bygone culture which has been alienated by force of the dominant religious and political discourse could be seen as blasphemy so I do not dare to say it as a celebration but a mourning, a silent and elegant one, like a piece of mournful gazal sung in a moonlit night when the archangel brought the God’s messages to the human beings. Silent mourning itself is an act of defiance; Umberto Eco says that when everyone is making noise, silence is rebellious. Sarvat Jafri’s works intend such a silent rebellion.

(Works by Syed Ali Sarvat Jafri)

Though that is a critic’s interpretation based on the political facts and contextual details of Faizabad which is now Ayodhya, as a resident of the place the artist, Sarvat Jafri does not feel the heat and dust, and mistrust that the people from elsewhere feel upon hearing the news from the district especially after the demolition of Babri Masjid on 6^th December 1992 and now after the Supreme Court verdict of giving away the disputed space to the Ramajanmabhoomi Trust for building the temple. Sarvat Jafri says that the discord among the people is not obvious; people in the district try to pull it off with equanimity and cordiality. None openly shows any hostility. But the mutual mistrust has been sown and the political parties thrive on it. Hence, for an artist from a community that is held under suspicion, the best way is to fall back on what the best that the culture could offer and show that a simple flower could bring a smile on a ruthless rogue’s face; that is the grace of simplicity.

(Works by Syed Ali Sarvat Jafri)

Unpacking Sarvat Jafri’s imageries is a bit difficult for as I mentioned above they are cultural specific and linguistically bound. However, the works remind the viewer of the collective unconscious of culture that we all share and the deep rooted understanding of the syncretic nature of India, and that re-awakening to that dawn of understanding is the beginning of recognizing the image repertoire created by Sarvat Jafri. He draws from the subtle stories of Sufism and the Quranic teachings. These stories have found their ways into various cultures, taking various forms and narratives so that the Semitic nature of certain religions do not look so strange; if at all the language has grown unfamiliar that is because of the slow removal it from the official dealings. Urdu finds its continued life in selected pockets and perhaps Sarvat Jafri’s works are one such avenue where the language and its cultural nuances could find an abode in the visual realm.

(Works by Syed Ali Sarvat Jafri)

Sarvat Jafri’s family has been the poets who sang at the courts. Spontaneous in versification and elegant and mesmerizing in imageries these poets had created the sonic ambience of society and it took a long time for the dominant religion to overpower it with the wild beating of drums and blowing of conch shells. Sarvat Jafri’s works are the silent vignettes of history. The choice of the medium is quite noticeable because the meaning of life is so close to the earth and the Sufi philosophy that pervades in the cultural make-up of the artist speaks of the journeys of man on the earth. God’s words and healing power came through these tablets. And on this mitti/clay/earth, Sarvat Jafri etches the memories of a city that once flourished in full glory of the Awadhi culture. He does not show the ruins; instead he gives the suggestions of the phantom edifices eaten away by time and man. He has also created Urdu alphabets using rickshaw rims, suggesting the community’s dependence on the rickshaw business. Syed Ali Sarvat Jafri’s works belong to a different class of contemporary art; a class of art that does not speak of urban glossy surfaces, war, migration and money. It deals with a history and it’s a struggle against forgetting.

-JohnyML

Re-minding ‘the Lockdown’ Days: Latest Installation by Subodh Kerkar

(Subodh Kerkar)

Subodh Kerkar could turn any material into a piece of work of art. He started off with sun and sand, first in water color and then embarked on journey of dealing with the natural elements in real time and space turning anything and everything in and around Goa into ephemeral installations in its truest sense. The origin of installations lies in the innate need of the rebellious artists who moved against the all devouring appetite of the money market that turned art into money and vice versa. Ephemerality was a quality that they sought out in their works and they wanted to see their works decaying like any other organic matter would, in due course of time, denying the markets a chance to monetize or museumize them.

(The Lock Down by Subodh Kerkar)

A quick learner from materials and a quick responder to the ideas Subodh Kerkar makes curatorial overtures with both materials and ideas, tinged with a sort of Goanese madness for life and art. In his hands sand, waves, sunlight, moonlight, electricity, seashells, rubber tyres, tubes and anything and everything become an ensemble of forms, performing in time and space, at times registered as a spectacular event and other times as photographic moments captured in controlled ambience. Museum of Goa is his brainchild and has been doing well ever since its inception, which houses not only the contemporary works of the Goan artists and also a large segment of his own works.

(The Lock Down Detail)

Corona Lockdown days did not let Kerkar down. He has been active in and through short youtube videos, ideating and inspiring, coaxing and cajoling the artists whose morale was considerably down in those days. The latest installation by Subodh Kerkar is titled ‘The Lockdown’ and it has an oversized pair of human lungs as the dominant image. Slightly Hirst-like in his approach Kerkar, as befitting to a medical doctor which is also one of his early incarnations, makes thorny pair of lungs out of fiberglass and is fitted to iron pipes that resemble the organic trachea and the adjoining vessels, whose edge is locked up by a very familiar lock.

(The Lock Down detail)

The choking imposed by the lockdown days is palpable in this semi-didactic work as the literalness of the image is not hidden by other embellishments than making its surface a bit tricky and precarious by sticking a host of Trifala thorns. The prick of pneumonic bout due to Corona virus and the resultant choking are presented directly through the semi-anatomic imagery. However, the metaphorical meanings would reel out once you look at it in a detailed fashion or rather spend some time contemplating its relevance and endurance as an art work. Corona or no corona (or Go Corona), the environmental pollution caused by our own callous behavior has brought in an asthmatic world wheezing for its life support. If care is not taken, if the erosion of environmental stability is not stopped, especially commenting on it from a state like Goa where rampant mining is not only a political problem but also a socio-cultural issue, sooner than later the sylvan sides of the universe may turn into living hells.

(The Lock Down detail)

The stark imagery that Subodh Kerkar has brought in through this installation makes the viewer wake up and think about his/her own act of sophisticated vandalism of the earth through constant plastic garbage production. There is an alluring tactile quality that is quite common to the sculptures but not of the installations. This allure created by the installation is threateningly fascinating almost reminding the viewers of the sensitivity of the issue that has engulfed the earth, now in the form of a deadly virus and much before in the form of another entity called human beings.

-JohnyML