A two-day art camp organised by the Kerala Lalithakala Akademi, to mobilise funds for flood rehabilitation process, began at the Napier Museum on Wednesday.
A total of 94 artists are participating in the camp. The artists will create works which will be put up for exhibition and sales at the museum gallery on September 10 and 11.
Sculptor Kanayi Kunhiraman inaugurated the camp by drawing a portrait of sound designer Resul Pookutty. Mr. Kunhiraman stressed the importance of artists bringing in an element of ‘Indianness’ into their art.
“We have a deep and vast culture of our own. We should never forget this. Even in art, we have a tradition that extends from Santiniketan to Baroda. Rather than following the great art from the outside, we need to tap this Indianness,” the sculptor said.
First installation
“We all have an Indian mind, from which our art originates. In my opinion, Sree Narayana Guru made the first ever installation art, when he put a random stone inside a temple and called it ‘Ezhava Sivan’. When we have such models to look up to, why should we run behind Western ideas,” he asked.
He said that true art would grow only if all the meaningless awards were stopped. On the recent floods, he said that it was nature paying back for all the mindless plunder.
Mr. Pookutty said that art was therapeutic, having the capability to wipe away all sorrows.
He said it was the need of the hour right now in the flood-ravaged State.
Similar camps
The Lalithakala Akademi had earlier organised similar camps in Ernakulam, Alappuzha, and Aluva. In Ernakulam, 270 artists got together to produce 1,000 paintings. Each of the paintings at the camp here will be sold for ₹1,500.
