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The middle path
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In Ramesh Kalkur’s works, the torso stands for many things — from creator and mythical character to magician and philosopher
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Bare back The pictures are stark, marked by rigorous brushstrokes, sophisticated thought and cultivated imagery
Ramesh Kalkur’s recent work, The Great Indian Show, substantiates the artist’s continuing fascination with human torsos. “This body of work produced in the year 2006–07, explores the form of torso with juxtaposition of various
objects,” says the Bangalore-based artist.
“Torso/perpetrator here enacts several roles. He manifests himself as a creator, mythical character, a magician and at times, as a philosopher… Pompous display of his possession/trophies reveals his glorious past, legacy and an emerging future… The world of images and objects has changed tremendously in the last decade. Images of the past have been recycled; they have transgressed cultural boundaries, gained new meanings and lost many attributes. They are excessive and exclusive at the same time. These works are also about coping, using, looking for relevance and resting with these objects and images.”
Kalkur who completed his Diploma in Painting from the Ken School of Art, Bangalore, proceeded to gain a Post Diploma from the Faculty of Fine Arts, M.S. University, Baroda.
He received the prestigious Inlaks Foundation Scholarship to study at the Royal College of Art, London (1994-96). The John Minton Travel Grant in 1995 enabled him to participate in a three-month exchange program in Berlin. The 38-year old artist has participated in several group shows including the travelling show “Veil” organised by the Institute of International Visual Arts (iniVA), UK, 2003.
His solo exhibitions titled “Assemblages” (1994), “11 X 11” (1998) and “Body Shop” (2003) received critical appreciation.
“Kalkur’s torso paintings bear a strong reference to the image of the cosmic man or the transcendent being as enshrined in various Indic religious traditions (the Vedic purusha, the Jaina tirthankara, the Mahayana bodhisattva, and the Bhagvata vishwarupa), but these archetypes are reconfigured in a contemporary social and environmental context,” wrote Nancy Adajania about Kalkur’s Bodyshop exhibition.
“The artist deliberately brings the cosmic body into the profane world of materiality, by making it the site of violated naturescapes, the ribcage a tangle of deadwood, the spine a bare creeper, the skin more cement than earth… Ramesh Kalkur turns his back on the world, not to escape it, but to address it head-on.”
In the current show, Kalkur presents two sets of paintings: one, acrylic paintings on canvas and the other, oil pastels on digital print. The works are stark, marked by rigorous brushstrokes, sophisticated thought and cultivated imagery.
On the surface, they appear repetitive with the image of a back of an unidentified, headless protagonist forming the backdrop for each painting.
On closer examination, the viewer deciphers the social and political implications of other images juxtaposed on the recurring motif of the human torso.
Particularly evocative are paintings such as “Getting Ready for the performance”, “Scene seven: Unfolding the beauty of power”, “Scene nine: Episode of Mahakal”, “Scene fourteen: Mahakal sub-episode”, “Scene sixteen: Manifestation of Kamadhenu”, “Scene eighteen: Unearthing the fort and Scene nineteen: Re-telling the story”.
The exhibition concludes on November 12 at Gallery Sumukha, Wilson Garden. Phone: 22292230 / 41207215.
GIRIDHAR KHASNIS
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