His friends call him ‘Door Santhana’ and ‘Door man’. Artist Santhana Krishnan does not mind; he says it is reflective of his works. After all, he has been painting only doors in different media for the past 18 years.
With each door his memories rekindle. There is one door mounted on the walls of Gallery Space inviting art lovers to pause and look at the world that the door is showcasing. The gallery is hosting an exhibition titled Art, Aesthetics and Utility , where artists have given a different dimension.
Done in mixed media, ‘the door’ by Santhana gives a feeling of being at the front door of one of the houses in a village. With a small lock, there are milk cans, two women talking sitting in the front yard, a tulsi plant adding to the nostalgic effect. While living in his apartment in Chennai, Santhana says he misses the old world culture. “I studied art at Kumbakonam and while walking from my grandpa’s house to my college, I would be fascinated looking at different doors. The doors were ventilated and would never be closed. My grandmother would take half-a-day to clean the front door,” he says with a smile.
If Ramesh Gorjala’s royal chairs with Ganesha and Hanuman theme strike you for their intricate lines and detailing, Fawad Tamkanat’s lamp shade is alluring. With a belief that the canvas is not the only surface to paint, artist Jaya Baheti says she was inspired by the ‘urli’ (wooden bowls used by traditional families in Gujarat, Karnataka and Maharashtra) found in her kitchen. “As a woman and an artist I feel privileged to work in the kitchen and also on canvas. I wanted to give a lovely twist to the natural artefact,” she says. The urli has a woman’s drawing and the artist’s collection of old coins.
Laxman Aelay and his daughter Priyanka Aelay have their works with women as the theme. Laxman’s work titled ‘Closet’ is reminiscent of the ‘bottu petta’ used by women in the villages. “It would be like a make-up wardrobe where women would keep coconut oil, kumkum, powder and comb. The glass doors acted as the mirrors,” he says. Priyanka’s work on a glass pot has women in focus coinciding with Women’s Day. With images of Durga and Saraswathi on the pot, there are little drawings too engaging the viewer. “I also wanted to bring into focus a social-political theme of what is happening to the environment and women,” says the young artist.
Bhaskar Rao’s table with its landscape painting and Chippa Sudhakar’s chairs are also part of the display. At the centre of the hall is a gramophone by Mumbai-based artist Gautam Mukherjee. He found simple and abandoned things in the ancestral house of Kolkata and made them decorative. “The old gramophone reminds us of the years gone by. It reminds us of Rabindranath Tagore, his art, music and songs,” he says. With images of a woman, parrots and lotus, he says lotus is a symbol of peace and one feels peaceful when one listens to songs. “In earlier days, women would remain caged in their homes and parrots were like a friend,” he states. One can also see a picture of a man with a hookah which the artist says was inspired after he saw one such image in Salar Jung museum.
The exhibition at Gallery Space is on till March 25 between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m.
