The artist is often seen as a peculiar being, dabbling in affairs not clearly “useful” to society even while the usefulness of many devices and forms of entertainment are questionable. What is Auroville ? celebrates art across the galleries of Chennai, drawing us to question its place. Marco Feira has curated the show at Lalit Kala Akademi. Birdsong trills through the air as I walk across the foyer — these are not by birds but a pair of speakers playing recorded audio. The paradox is a gentle reminder of how Mother visualised Auroville: a community where men would be free and not enslaved to the past, in pursuit of the the divine.
In Juergen Puetz’s Abstract 2 , torrid yellows blister through dark reds and blacks like a pool of light illuminating a dense forest cover. Reputed artist Birgitta Volz shows her enigmatic prints of trees. Like we imagine faces in clouds or a hare on the moon, Volz’s fascination for finding people in the contours is seen in Universe on Bark , 2014 printed off a Maduca tree in Auroville. A photograph shows Volz unwrapping a print from a painted tree, from the bark of which she has transferred texture. A close communing with Nature is common to many practitioners at Auroville. Thus, O. Ramesh’s Memories of a Butterfly deciphers the rugged contours of the pupa stage, unformed, its muddy and rugged appearance the topic for his series of illustrations. Lalie Sorbet expands our world, photographing images through dewdrops with a macro lens. In Aurora , a snail curls tenderly and in Diamonds , a spider walks across a sparkling crystalline terrain. Meanwhile, architect Adil Writer cleverly creates impressions of Nature on stacked ceramic cubes, man’s imposition becoming a reflection on architecture. Writer’s Sangha of Shy Monks shows monks in foetal positions, hugging their knees, a whole populace appearing like shiny tree-coconuts in olives, tans and browns.
In all Michel Hutin’s ceramic sculptures, there is a sense of equanimity, an equilibrium that is hard to explain. There is perfection in the rawness and cracks, and in the placement of tiny bits of colour, strokes of blue or red as in Totems . All is one is calming with shades of Dubuffet. There is a great devotion to technique and finish and a deep discipline common to all these artists. But can art be expressive without the struggle to conquer the many conflicts that come upon us — from society, from the need to make a living while making art, and certainly, the battles within us? I walk towards a psychedelic red ovoid called Ellipsomystic and by it, a geometrical Constructed Cherry by Henk van Putten. They are both flat paintings, rendered smoothly in acrylic but appear three-dimensional and therefore create a mesmeric effect. Often, the art is contained as if in limbo, in that tiny threshold where it is neither this nor that. Even Ireno Guera’s graphic photographs of mannequins propose a higher plane of existence with their punctuated thoughts in comic book bubbles: Having gone beyond the mind-made opposites I become like a deep undisturbed lake .
The spirit of Auroville nurtures a space for artists to practise in a setting that is unique, allowing a meditative engrossment. All of the art that comes from this international community has an odd characteristic — they portray a lack of angst. The artists appear to be eliminating that slip in the cracks called “becoming”, which is weighed with expectancy, replacing it with just “being”. Priya Sundaravalli’s statement: “My work seeks to express the beauty and joy of life” reminds how art can bring peace and a certain kind of stillness that is hard to find elsewhere.
The writer has degrees from NID and The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is passionate about unravelling art through dialogue and writing.
(Chennai Canvas links art to design and culture through an inside look at the city)
