Light of dawn streams from the top of a cliff into the valley beneath as two daredevils climb up the steep, moss laden cliff face using just a rope. It might as well have been an edge-of-the seat scene from the famous movie Cliffhanger . Only just that the cliff is actually a portion of raised mossy earth barely 20 cm high and the daredevils are stick-figures made of matchstick. But the crafting and conceptualisation is so exquisite that you would think it is real, at least for a moment.
The wizardry behind this matchstick art is of multi-talented K.R. Bivin Lal, or ‘magician’ Bivin Lal as he is known among his friends. A self-taught conjurer and skilled event photographer, Bivin Lal is fascinated by all sorts of art. “Whenever I see something interesting on YouTube or TV, I ask myself whether I can do it or not. Matchstick art was something that I saw in a video on the internet. At that time I didn’t really give it a thought,” says Bivin. But it did come to him later on.
K.R. Bivin Lal
A native of Chirayinkeezhu, 35 km north of Thiruvananthapuram, Bivin works in the District Panchayat office in the city. It was during one of his usual evening train journeys to Chirayinkeezh in June 2016 that he decided to try his hand with matchsticks. “I heard someone talking about Jagathy Shreekumar’s iconic comic scene from the movie Meeshamadhavan , the one with the dialogue ‘ Purushu enne anugrahikanam ’. I thought it was a good concept to work on using matchstick figures,” he recalls, with a chuckle. That night Bivin got to work. It was a crude attempt, but the magician’s charm was evident. The appreciation he got from his colleagues and friends was overwhelming, and more than enough for Bivin to move forward with his new hobby.
For a while he dabbled with random ideas, some of them suggested by his friends. The Theyyam artiste that he crafted was one such idea. It is a stunning night-time scene of a Theyyam artiste, complete with red ritualistic adornments and elaborate headgear with torches attached to it. He adds, “It is one of my favourites. But the torches were a menace. I had used lamp wicks to make the torches and I didn’t have any idea how much time I would have before they got extinguished. So by the time I managed to get ready to take the snap, two of the wicks burned out.” Now when he wants to create torches, the portion of the stick below the wick gets a coat of soap to restrict the flame for a while.
Theyyam artist made using matchsticks by K.R. Bivin Lal
Perfection is something Bivin is obsessed with. He wants to create a sense of feeling and expression from his figures. So he spent quite some time on figure studies, 3D animation theory and clothing of stick figures, which he then applied into his matchstick world. It worked. Mere stick figures transformed into well-articulated characters. “Clothing is the most difficult part. I stitch them using origami sock and put them carefully onto the figures. It takes hours to do it. The hair on the figures come from my 10-month-old daughter Akshara’s real hair, which I collect whenever she is given a haircut. I also extensively use miniature effects in my works. Most of the plants you see in my works are artificial flora used in aquariums. The grass that you see is bird seed. Trays of different sizes are used to house the settings,” he adds. Photography is an equally important part of this art form. It wouldn’t be so effective, Bivin says, unless the right frame and lighting are used. Thanks to his expertise in macro-photography, the snaps are perfect.
Bivin didn’t spend much time with random ideas, as he moved on to works with a message crafted in them. The ongoing ‘classroom’ and ‘circus’ family series is part of that change in style. The classroom series deals with celebrating education. Bivin created an entire classroom set-up with dozens of matchstick students, desks and chairs, and a teacher clad in a sari addressing them. “The classroom set up took almost four days. The whole thing is set on a plywood board and in the background I used miniature pictures of Mahatma Gandhi and a map of India to create the classroom atmosphere,” explains Bivin.
Teacher addressing the students - Education series matchstick art by K.R. Bivin Lal
On the other hand the three-part circus series depicts the life of a family of street circus performers – their performance, returning home at night and life at home.
Street circus performance - circus series matchstick art by K.R. Bivin Lal
Till date he has created over 40 matchstick art works on various themes. But the one on Kolkata remains his favourite. It showcases the famous hand-pulled rickshaws of the city. “I can’t believe that the practice of a human being carrying another human being for a living is still going on in independent India. It is a truly heartbreaking scenario. I would like to do more works on Kolkata. For that I need to visit the city again,” he says.
Hand-pulled rickshaw of Kolkata - matchstick art by K.R. Bivin Lal
So what is the secret of his success with matchsticks? Pure patience. “Anyone can do this. I don’t think you need a lot of skill. But patience and humility is something that can’t be spared. You need loads of that. Matchsticks sometimes break or won’t stick properly. It will drive you insane. But you need to just, literally, keep your head down and work on it ,” says Bivin, with his neck craned forward demonstrating his magic with the matches by making a few figures, using a box of sticks and a super-glue that we had bought for him to play with. Can’t argue with that!
