It's literally an ABCD scenario at Anurendra Jegadeva's exhibition “Strange Paradise”, except that instead of American born confused desi, it would be fifth-generation Malaysia-born, confused Sri Lankan Tamil of Indian origin.
That certainly complicates things, but for Anurendra, it's what feeds his art. He has even done a whole series of A-Z paintings depicting terms related to his identity, like A for ancestors, B for butterfly (a self-portrait) and C for change.
“Though I'm a fifth-generation Sri Lankan Tamil staying in Malaysia, I'm aligned to the idea of Mother India. My religious and social idols are people from Chandrasekhar Bose to Gandhiji and Kamal Hassan. I explore the tensions between my identities as a Malaysian with a Western outlook with an Indian Hindu past. As the world grows smaller, everybody experiences this conflict of identity and questions it,” says Anurendra, who has Indian roots, grew up in Malaysia and went to college in Australia and London.
“My mother was the last of the Anglophiles in my family. My grandmother had a portrait of Ganesha next to a picture of the queen. My mother's cupboard was full of English things, including pictures of English weddings. So I grappled with questions of who we are and where we came from. We grew up reading Kipling more than Tagore.”
Many of his works in his current exhibition have English motifs. He has depicted his mother as the queen on a frame reminiscent to a cupboard, stuck torn pages from Enid Blyton in his alphabet series and painted Noddy and Billy Bunter around his childhood home in Malaysia (in a work titled “This is where we live”).
Anurendra first did a foundation course in art and design at the Oxford polytechnic in 1986, before taking up a degree in LLB in London University, finally moving on to do a masters degree in fine arts in Australia's Monash University.
“My journey as an artist is just like any other, with its ups and downs. It's a hard lonely pursuit and you come knowing that you might not be able to drive a Mercedes. But you are always doing things that you love.”
In “Strange Paradise”, his latest work, is a profile of his neighbourhood priests, each depicted as one of the nine gurus or navagrahas — budha, chandra, guru, ketu, mangal, rahu, shani, sukra and suria — of the Indian tradition. Each guru has different icons painted around him. For instance, budha has Kipling and Tagore on either side of him, the Indian goddess Saraswati hovers above chandra 's and a crow sits on rahu 's head. “I love how sensual Hinduism is with all the oils and the tactile deities. The priests have an intimate relationship with their idols. I see how the ladies love the priest's young assistant.”
Anurendra has done more than thirty group and solo exhibitions in Malaysia and Singapore, Australia, China and UK. This is his first exhibition in India. “I want to be more relevant in India, so much of my work is based on my affinity towards this country. I would also like to drive a Mercedes Benz,” he says, grinning.
Humour and craft play an important role in his art, whose evolution, he says, takes place naturally over time. “With age and experience, I have noticed that my art is becoming more subtle. Though artists feel that craft is now antiquated, I think it's important to cherish making craft, I keep honing my craft. Sometimes, tackling a difficult subject with beauty disarms the viewer. Also I think humour makes it easy to communicate the message across to people because that way, they don't take it too seriously.”
Current affairs also influence Anurendra's art. “All my works are connected to the world and to each other. The whole process starts off with a line and each painting feeds off the other. I work around photographs and popular images, but drawing and painting play an integral role. I understand that painting is an old tradition, and that my works can't always be about painting. So I'm constantly trying to reinvent the medium.”
“Strange Paradise” will be on view at Gallery Sumukha 24/10 BTS Depot Road, Wilson Garden, until December 15. For details, contact 22292230.
Published - December 01, 2011 08:03 pm IST
