‘Evidentia', the ongoing exhibition at Gallery Sumukha, is a quirky and unusual collection of works by 15 artists from Kerala and Bangalore. Using a variety of media, including paintings and photography, the exhibition explores our world, its culture and practices, and our lived experience of being part of it, a multitude of unexpected ways.
Collage of humanity
Take for example, Priti Vadakkath's fascinating, rather disturbing black-and-white visual re-imagining of Lord of the Flies — three innocent-looking young boys incongruously clad in police uniform and holding machine guns.
Or Ashok Kumar Gopalan's brilliantly-coloured collage that is, quite simply, a kaleidoscope of humanity and Indian culture — old men and little children, parents and lovers, dancers and iconic figures such as the Mahatma.
T.M. Azis' gorgeous, sepia-toned oils are a poignant facsimile of fading old school photos that are smudged with time, recreating that sense of nostalgia with nothing more than a few school-girl faces and pigtails.
Ravikumar Kashi's beautifully realistic oil and acrylic on canvas of a man in midair against an azure sky evokes simultaneously conflicting of emotions — the exhilaration of freedom and the fear of the unknown.
Bhagyanath, like Gopalan, steps back, and looks at the collective in his psychedelic colour-against-black acrylic ‘Limbo', casting humanity and all chaotic, cacophonic human activities in a series of claustrophobic cubicle-like apartments that seem to continue into infinity…
And, that barely scratches the surface. Each artist brings a fresh interpretation of our existence, our past and present experience, stories and icons in this collection conceptualised by Bangalore-based artist Murali Cheeroth. Cheeroth's own work is a powerfully real, vibrantly evocative portrait of grief and chaos.
Brilliant abstracts
Babu Easwar Prasad's work, on the other hand, is as cryptic as it's arresting, featuring a single horse in a sparsely furnished, all-solid-colours room.
And, George Martin's abstract is all splashes of brilliant, almost neon colours, an unfettered, unbridled celebration of life in pinks, oranges, greens, blues, reds, yellows, and more.
This collection has a whole lot to say; if you care to stop and look, look again. The exhibition is on until February 10.
