A sculptural journey into life and myth

Women going round the exhibition put up by Sairam Gurajala, artist and sculptorat at Gulistaan Art Village near Visakha Valley School in Visakhapatnam. Photo: C.V. Subrahmanyam.

Gulistaan Art Gallery is housing an artist's journey of life and his fantasies in colourful sculptural form in mixed medium that displays his penchant for saving the Mother Nature and sending a message to the children through some attractive exhibits inside and outside the gallery.

Drawing a parallel between six main seasons Vasant, Grishma, Varsha, Sharad, Hemant and Sishir, different stages of life and six key different forms of art – music, literature, dance, painting, sculpting and theatre, Sairam Gurajala has displayed some of his recent works that are thematically matching and representing his reminiscences of various stages of his own life.

Despite being unique in the format of presentation every visitor or child connects to the theme and the sculptures effortlessly to get an insight into thought process of every person hailing from a rural background like Sairam, who comes from Dharmajigudem in West Godavari and weathered many a struggles in life to turn into a successful artist of international repute.

Circles, colour patterns on large canvas adorn the walls inside the gallery setting the mood of the season with reds dominating the Grishma, whites in Sharad and greyish browns in Sishir, and each canvas has a couple of sculptures that depict one of the memorable incidents of life like trying to fly like a kite by attaching feathers to hands, working in the chillies fields with his mother, playing marbles with friends or collecting the velvety insect `Arudra Purugu'.

His understanding of nature while interacting with squirrels, while they dropped tender coconuts from top of the tree while he studied beneath them.

His romance and marriage followed by zeal to understand the fishermen's lifestyle at sea form some of the interesting exhibits. `U' turn of his life to enter the world of arts inspired by seven gurus of Andhra University Department of Arts, penance in Shivalik mountains, and Soul Show at Hyderabad that brought him fame complete the `Inside Anda'.

Outside the Anda has been arranged on the terrace of the Gulistaan Art Gallery, one of the unique ones that is nestled in Kambalakonda naturally. `Outside' is his wish to see the abolishing of all evil things in the world, protection of environment and human being's journey to an ideal world. The exhibition will remain open till February 27 opposite Visakha Valley School.