Vera Arjoma believes that images speak louder than words. A visual artiste, Vera says she finds it unnerving when asked to describe her works. “When I work on a project, the image is clear in my mind. However, if you ask me to explain my thoughts in words, I draw a blank. I believe it’s tough for any artiste to talk about their work,” says the Finnish artiste who works with moving images, photography, sculptures and installations, and has displayed her works across Europe and in the US.
Vera draws inspiration from the workings of the human mind, limits of physicality and social questions. If
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A video starts playing when the viewer pedals a stationary bicycle in Vera’s art work Citius Altiun Fortius. “Citius Altiun Fortius deals with energy production,” says Vera who recently did a photography shoot on special masses in Finland. “One church I visited was holding Medieval mass wherein the priest and congregation were all dressed in Medieval wear. Another interesting church I went to had traditional prayer chants recited rock style!”
The artiste is currently in the city to start work on her latest project - ‘Cultural harmony - Classical theatre dance forms of Kerala’. “While attending a course on Asian Theatre History in college, a professor spoke on and screened videos on Kathakali and Koodiyattam; I was fascinated by how the dance forms were still rooted to tradition and how mudras and expressions were used to narrate a story.”
When a Kathakali troupe performed in her hometown, she attended the event. “I have no idea what the play is called. All I know is that it was a love story and I fell in love with the Green man [character in pacha vesham]. Since then I have been wanting to do an art project on the art forms; it is a dream project.”
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No stranger to Kerala, Vera is a frequent visitor to Amritapuri Ashram. She has helped shoot and edit videos on Amrita’s self reliant villages in the country. And while editing the videos, the urge to start her dream project kept nudging her. During her research on the subject, she discovered how artistes from different backgrounds and religions are taking to the dance forms.
A swami at the ashram introduced her to Kiran Prabhakar, a programme manager with Amrita TV, who is currently helping her with the project. “I wanted artistes from different backgrounds and religions for the project and he gave me a list of possible artistes.” While Koodiyattam danseuse Annie Johnson and Kathakali exponent Madavoor Vasudevan Nair have agreed to be a part of the project, they have yet to finalise on a Mohiniyattam performer.
As Annie is performing in the city on December 30 as part of a temple festival, “a perfect example of communal harmony”, Vera will be kickstarting her project with Annie. “It will be a detailed shoot with one camera shooting the entire play. There is no singular message in my work. I am out to capture the visual aesthetics, the language of the theatre... I feel it’s important to document such rich art forms so that people are inspired to learn more about them.”
A theatre artiste herself, Vera says that, while she is fascinated with the traditional dance forms of Kerala, she doesn’t think she will learn them. “They are tied to a different tradition, something I am not a part of. Learning the art form also looks like hard work. I am content being part of the audience,” says Vera, as she signs out.