When you step in to see American artist Tom Burckhardt’s cardboard installations at the Kochi Muziris Biennale, you experience a sense of disorientation. Reason: Everything is upside down. The black monochrome paintings in which paint cans lying on shelves have been drawn in an inverted manner, and books such as Leo Tolstoy’s ‘War and Peace’ and Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s ‘Notes from the Underground’ defy the law of gravity. A couple of canvases have also been pasted on the ceiling.
Titled, ‘Studio Flood’, the work was indeed inspired by a flood.
On October 29, 2012, Hurricane Sandy hit New York.
“There was five feet water inside many houses and artists’ studios,” says the 52-year-old artist.
“Some artists, who had basement studios, lost their entire work.”
This was also the situation at the art gallery district called Chelsea, which is close to the shore.
“The image of all the artworks floating in the water stayed in my mind, apart from all the wasted effort,” says Burckhardt, who has been painting for more three decades now.
“The only good that came out of it was that artists, normally so self-centered, came together and helped one another.”
Asked whether his installation is an exact replica of a studio in New York, he says, “There is a bit of Kochi in it.”
That is true. When you look through the window, you can see palm trees. On one wall, there is Kerala-style political graffiti, with the familiar hammer and sickle, the symbol of Communist Party.
Like in the US, flooding is a big issue in coastal Kochi as well as Kerala, owing to global warming.
“So I believe there is a link between New York and Kochi,” he says. Tom also believes his work is an apt metaphor.
“When a tragedy hits people they will always say, ‘My world has turned upside-down’,” he says.
Initially, when Tom arrived in Kochi, he did find his world go upside-down. That’s because he could not find the right type of cardboard to make the installation. When Biennale founder Bose Krishnamachari came to know, he made a call. Within a day, the correct material arrived.
“It gives you an indication of Bose’s clout,” he says.
Asked why he used cardboard, Tom says, “People can relate to it, unlike oil and acrylic.”
The other materials he used were black paint and glue. It takes him a couple of weeks to complete a painting.
As for his impressions about the Biennale, Tom says, “This is a very organic festival. It is based on an artistic vision and not so much on a curator or theorist’s vision.”
There are other charms, too. “The setting is unique,” he says.
“I love that this festival is for everybody in this town. In other Biennales, art seems to belong to the rich and the cognoscenti.”