Setting an avant-garde path in art in the midst of a spate of technological and commercial advancement, artist Shibu Shivram vocalises the platonic concepts of reality through paintings.
Standing as testimony to his words and giving art a new definition and an exclusive existence are 30 works of Shivram selected from his collection from 1993 to 2013.
“Art’s existence is exclusively for art. The comparison of art to another object is not art but symbolism,” he says. These works stand apart as a different visual experience for the audience.
Deconstructing the existing notions of reality, Shivram has artistically given life to the theories of philosophers Plato and Derrida. Questioning the credibility of perceiving human-centred reality as ‘truth,’ he attributes the choice of colours and shapes of objects in art as an activity of brain rather than as a reflection of reality.
“If other creatures perceive reality in a different way, human perception becomes relative. What is perceived is thus not the real world but a construct of the mind,” he says.
His initial works done from 1993-2003 attaches a special significance to triangular and rectangular symmetries, the significance of colours being the last priority. The solitude of black becomes a striking feature of his Tantric works from 2003-2011.
On the gradual abandonment of these features in the later works, he says, “It is not possible to create a division between concrete objects in the field of creativity. Thus, one is forced to adopt complex methods. These factors are determinant in matters such as texture, colour and form.” He views the progress of art in Kerala as a ‘layered’ concept. “Even now creations that are adaptions of the style of Raja Ravi Varma continue to adorn the galleries. The tragedy will continue as long as what an artist draws and why he draws is not decoded.”
The exhibition ‘Retrospective’ at Alliance Francaise de Trivandrum Akademi is open for the public till May 28.
