The mind is a battleground. Thoughts, good and bad, fight to gain the top spot. There is invisible bloodshed and inaudible wailing. Like little mobile bombs ready to explode, humans cruise through life. Birds sense it. Butterflies smell it. Thus they keep their distance, bringing in a divide between man and nature, who are supposed to be united.
This thought is translated in Augustine Thilak’s works, wherein he shows birds and animals scorning man. A couple of paintings later, the same man is seen sitting amid a group of animals, relaxed. This time, however, he is faceless. “When a man lets go of his ego and identity, he becomes one with nature,” explains Augustine. At this stage, as the paintings show us, he is a blooming man.
Augustine has used ‘the lock’ as an analogy to the myriad confusions one faces in every day life. Clay models of a bunch of people searching hither tither for keys, another work of Augustine’s is a satirical remark on how people go about searching for a solution externally when the key happens to be right beneath them.
For those who did not fathom the subtle reference of lock and key as a call to unleash one’s thoughts, Augustine has installed a giant screw as a piece of art. Weighing 25 kilograms, it is made out of over 17,000 smaller screws! The installation is a loud message to open up, to loosen one’s ego and discard the choking thoughts.