Patience, Anil Sundaresh, would agree, is one quality he learnt after eight years as a matchstick artist. Thirty-nine of his works, made completely of matchsticks, is currently on display at the Museum Auditorium in the city.
A piece titled ‘100 hours of thinking’ stays true to the title because Anil had spent 100 hours it — a take on the stages of human thoughts. Polished matchsticks form the sentence ‘Make time to enjoy simple things in life’ in another display. Anil has indeed derived great joy in the out-of the-ordinary art.
“Once I come back from work, I start shaping matchsticks. At times I cut my fingers while shaping matchsticks with blades and have to redo the work”, says the artist who works in a telecommunication industry in Cochin. An intricately shaped model of a Royal Enfield bike, a guitar, singer Michael Jackson, two-sided dragons, figurines symbolising love and lust — his fingers have shaped them all. “The art inspired me to come up with a book ‘The Flaming Passion,’ which covers my entire work,” says Anil, who gifts his works to friends and family. His next work will require him to put in extra effort for he is trying to find a place in the Limca Book of Records by creating a 10-foot work on the theme Lifestyles. The exhibition will conclude on October 28.
