When clay is fired it transforms into terracotta. Heat brings about the change. ‘Burnt’, an exhibition of paintings, drawings, sculptures and video, which is on at Durbar Hall Art Gallery, Kochi, till August 13, is as much about the processes as it is about change itself. Six art teachers, four from the College of Fine Arts in Thiruvananthapuram and two from the College of Fine Arts, Mavelikara, try to step out of their professional identity and indulge in the unfettered license enjoyed by an artist; that they for once should relinquish class room formality of definitions, history and critiques and present a canvas where they are what they intrinsically are, artists. The show addresses this aspect.
Chandran T. V., art history teacher, aims at busting the idea that teaching art stands in the way of creating art. His canvases are about issues but he is careful to convey his opinion in a subtle way. A monochromatic work, ‘Story of an Arid Land’, is where his idiom turns to one of a teacher’s. “It is conceived as a drawing; the line determines the form,” he says about the painting. The use of colour, imagery and the contours is where the drawing element is highlighted.
Sreenandanan T.K. works in different materials - terracotta, ceramics, tea wash, ink- exemplifying the malleability of the materials. The palette points to his knowledge, expertise and ease of using the materials. An underlying, subtle hint of the teacher’s tone is unmistakable. ‘His Own Country’ made with 39 pieces in ceramics and terracotta is not only an interesting piece of craft and narration but also a work where creativity has crossed the boundaries of the class.
Lal K. is the overt instructor. Education is his field and the works are about his opinion on the shortcomings in the field. In ‘The Inverted Tree’, acrylic on canvas (91x91cm), he harks back to the times of the guru-shishya tradition. ‘The Forbidden Foliage’ deals with tampered syllabi and prejudiced texts. Yellow is a colour used generously, something that stirs his memory, he says. His works are titled - ‘Discipline’, ‘Punishment’ and such. His three etchings on Zinc plate are attractive works, serious in tone, and also serve as perfect examples of technique and process.
Charutha Reghunath’s two works are gentle narratives and seem just so. Even if she is explaining, it is done in subtle tones and soft strokes. S. Prasannakumar’s 2010 sculpture, Precious Object, is an eye-catching central work where the subject overtakes the techniques, though patination, a process where a blow torch application of copper nitrate on surface is done, is to great effect. The work is about equilibrium in cosmos, in society, in life.
Tenzing Joseph’s 20-minute video is the modern arm to a show that is, as Prasannakumar says, collated to give more importance to handmade and the traditional way of creating art. It is about the sweep of modern terminology, technology and processes in art creation that is relegating historical techniques. ‘Burnt’ is an enjoyable lesson in the myriad facets of art.
