Open these doors to let memories visit you. They will usher you into a world we have left behind, a world replete with rich culture. You will also get a glimpse of the old ways of living. A bicycle in corner, a tulsi plant in courtyard...Santhana Krishnan’s doors show us so much.
Santhana grew up in Kumbakonam in Tamil Nadu. Beautifully-carved doors were the norm and he was taken in by them. His house had 82 doors. It has been 18 years since he started painting professionally and doors have never gone away from his canvas. “They have only evolved. From sketches to watercolours, oils to acrylic, mixed media to 3D they have appeared in different ways and forms,” says Santhana, who in his second solo in Bengaluru, is exhibiting a mix of acrylic-laden canvases and installations as door frames where one half is a real door and the other is painted canvas.
Also known as Door Santhanam, he has held exhibitions showcasing doors from as many as 24 states of India. In this show however, Santhana concentrates on South India.
“There are doors from Chettinad, Tamil Nadu, Tumkur and other places,” says Santhana, who is always searching for interesting wooden doors. “Carved doors particularly which have vanished. Regardless of the material, doors are important. You live your life behind it. I have been painting them for 18 years and still not got bored of it because there is so much to it. The eyelid is also a door of sorts. The zip of the purse is also a door,” says the young artist.
Painted in deep colours, Santhana’s doors are not merely an object. In his canvases, they become a metaphor. “Also, they are open because doors in villages are always open to guests. They are inviting unlike doors in the city which are closed.”
Not just doors, Santhana has borrowed other nuances of the past as well. The mark left by health workers for polio vaccinations, stained glasses with a calendar behind to stop the light coming in, wooden panels are some of the minute details, the artist has carefully captured in his works.
“I don't know if stained glass is still produced but an old house was being demolished and I asked them to give it to me. I kept it to use it for my work.” The artist is now working towards an upcoming solo in Boston.
(The exhibition Doors To Infinity is on at Kynkyny Art Gallery, 104 Embassy Square, Infantry Road, till August 31)
