One place, many perspectives – that is the focus of ‘Raag’, Sara Hussain’s ongoing exhibition of paintings at Alliance Francaise de Trivandrum. And when it is the historic Jew town in Mattancherry in Kochi, the 22 paintings in acrylics acquire a charm that goes beyond the images on canvas. The moody streetscapes of the scenes seen from the artist’s studio in Jew town tease the imagination to fill in the spaces that the artist opens up in her works.
But for three waterscapes of Mattancherry, the canvasses give viewers a bird’s view of the quaint street that has still not completely severed its link to an eventful past. Cultures and communities continue to influence the lives of the people who live there or earn a living in these small narrow alleys. With a palette knife, Sara has covered her canvasses with bold colours and thick layers of paint to create a texture and lend depths to her paintings.
“My studio is on the first floor of a building and these are scenes that I see every day. These are my impressions but I have added or erased a few scenes to enhance the feel of my works. This is now a commercial centre and what used to be warehouses and dwellings are now outlets for selling antiques and handicrafts,” says the artist, who is exhibiting in the capital city for the first time.
Hailing from a rural family in Arookutty, Alappuzha, Sara had always been drawn to art. After completing her diploma in fine arts from a private institution, Sara has been experimenting with medium and styles. Although water colours are her favourite medium, she also works in oils and acrylics. This exhibition, curated by Beena V. Nair, displays her skill in capturing the ambience of a place without too much ado.
Rooftops of the old buildings huddle all along the street while narrow alleys and streets have people, mostly men, going about their lives – talking, sitting, walking and cycling. Aged mossy walls with peeling paint and a damp look tell a story of neglect while light escaping from some of the arched windows high above the street hint at the lives inside the crumbling rooms. Three of her works show the streets in the mellow light of dusk when the surroundings are bathed in the golden glow of street lights. The evocative paintings capture the mood of a city that is in repose after a hard day’s work: cycles leaning against the wall, immobile handcarts and closed doors in an empty street. Electric poles with wires dangling on all sides is a common motif in all the works.
“It worries me to see the lines going helter-skelter in all directions. We don’t even know if all those wires are electric lines. Some of it resemble nests,” says Sara.
Her waterscapes focus on a Mattancherry that is not usually seen by tourists. The huge brooding warehouses lined up on the bank no longer receive spices or bales of textile to export to the world yet their presence has many tales to narrate. She sketched the scenes on a trip by boat to Fort Kochi.
Once Sara returns to her studio, she will take up her palette again. This time there will be daubs of oils on it for she is busy completing a series of works on Christ that has been commissioned by a church. Showing snaps of two of the large paintings on her mobile, Sara says: “The paintings have to be over by December. But in the midst all this, I have not cut myself from watercolours. I still paint landscapes in watercolour,” she says.
Her exhibition concludes today at 6 p.m.
