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Weft and weave of life

Three artists hold up the mirror to life with their brushes and chisels

The exhibition is titled Form From Within but isn't all art an expression of what's within? Quibbles apart, the exhibition at Kala Hita mounted by P. Mahesh, Bharath Yadav and Y. Shivaramachary shows that Indian art is still close to the roots. Though all the artists live and work in Hyderabad their muse, their inspiration is in villages.

The muse might be rustic but the idiom is very modern. Bharath revels in the primeval bull and other animistic forms. But Bharath's bull doesn't live in a bucolic haven but it even walks into an Irani restaurant and has the brown brew. "I have spent a lot of time in Irani restaurants and have noticed the similarity between some of the people who frequent the places and bulls. That gave me inspiration to do this," he says about canvas where a cup of tea is about to be slurped by a bull.

Y. Shivaramachary's sculptures take you to a different realm as he lets his mind and hands wander to create forms out of disused car radiator, AC ducting to creating idylls out of nothing. If he transforms a radiator by drilling five holes and plugging in spark plugs and connecting them with copper wires to create symmetry, he also uses boats and yachts to fathom the urge to travel. Stand near his sculptures titled Journey and you can taste the seaspray on your lips as well as feel the wind in your hair. The message of the journey is not communicated by the yacht, carved out of a single block of wood with the sail fluttering in the wind but by the lone human figure staring out into the sea or maybe the coast. P. Mahesh's wanderings of the mind are more mundane reaching out to changing livelihoods and lifestyles. Using fabric colours, spindles, the mules and other tools of weavers, Mahesh makes a social comment as well as shows his felicity with colours and textures.

SERISH NANISETTI

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