Open the window with the hope of sighting birds, trees and the blue skies beyond but most often, we have to be content with spotting yet another high rise building and a mess of cables and wires. We could despair and rue at having to live in a concrete jungle or dream of a vacation in the lap of nature. Better still, find solace in small pockets of greenery at the turn of the street, at a neighbour’s balcony or our own small green patch. What we focus on makes a world of difference.
Artist couple Sweta Chandra and Pavan Kumar D prefer an optimistic point of view. Birds, animals and trees are the crux of their work but they aren’t far removed from the realistic urban scenario. Sweta Chandra honed her artistic skills in Santiniketan and likes to play with textures. Sometimes, she uses uses vinyl boards and the colours and patterns in acrylic come alive against the natural wood-tone background. She paints mynahs, parrots, bulbuls, humming bees and other birds. A little behind them are a cluster of houses or a neighbourhood street seen through hazy clouds. One of the paintings also have colonial arches we find in residential complexes. She leaves the arches a tad incomplete, sure that the viewer would complete the picture with imagination. She does that with the houses as well; they are partly hidden in view. “You don’t need to spell out everything all the time. We, human beings, are intelligent and we just need a clue to give wings to our imagination and complete the picture,” she reasons.
Birds in flight are a recurring motif in some of her paintings, through which she gives wings to her emotions and thought process. In one of the smaller paintings on canvas, she shows a bird carrying a pouch — filled with tiny houses. One monsoon, when certain areas of Hyderabad were inundated after heavy showers, she felt maybe the birds could carry entire houses and transport people to safety.
In another painting on vinyl board, there are windows that offer glimpses of blue sky with cotton clouds. But the view is a mirage. A pathway leads to another window in a distance, indicating that sometimes we need to move away from a crowded neighbourhood to be closer to nature.
Nature is the common element between her work and that of Pavan Kumar D. Kumar is known for his earlier abstract paintings through which she stood out in the Hyderabad art scene. He studied at J J School of Art, Mumbai, and likes a touch of abstraction even in his figurative works.
A departure from his still life portraits and self portraits in his earlier years, he presents a series of sculptures. The forms of animals and birds are slightly exaggerated, some of them adorned with a vibrant patch of colours. Textured patterns also come into play. “I prefer art to be more engaging, utilitarian and triggering a discussion than adorning a wall. As our daughter was growing up, I felt the need to make these structures that are art pieces, informative for children and can also be used at homes and offices as paper weights,” he explains. Some of the figures have been scaled up for the art exhibition. The sculptures have been assembled using pieces of boards and wood discarded at carpentry workshops. “There’s no dearth of waste material in the city. I wanted to use them creatively,” he mentions.
Pavan Kumar and Sweta Chandra have exhibited their work in Hyderabad and other cities but this is their first show together. They intend to have at least one show together annually.
Dissimulare (to hide or conceal), an exhibition of paintings and sculptures, is on view at Iconart gallery, Banjara Hills, Hyderabad, till July 12.
