On most days artist Anu Zafaran looks out of the window of her 15th-floor apartment in Kochi. Sometimes, she sees a blue sky, sometimes it is grey. The sight puts her in a reflective mood. She turns to her canvas and begins to paint wherein emerges a woman lost in somber reflection. Beside her face, are two large banana leaves. By its side, there is a silhouette of a woman who seems to be screaming.
At the bottom of the canvas stands a girl looking up curiously at the two women. “I am trying to portray the relationship between nature and people,” says the painter. The work went on display at the ‘She’ exhibition that was recently held at the Kerala History Museum, Kochi.
An acquaintance suggested to Anu that the portrait of the melancholic woman is suggestive of her mother. “I don’t know what it means but my mother played a big role in my life, but she died of illness in 2010. When I was 16, a sudden heart attack claimed my father. My mother had a difficult time bringing me up and my brother.” Anu enjoys reading Gabriel Garcia Marquez. She especially liked Love in the Time of Cholera. “The book accounts for the lushness in my paintings, apart from the fact that Kerala is lush green too,” says Anu.
The work of Uthara Remesh shows a different kind of lushness. She painted The Birth, acrylic on plywood which from a distance seems eponymous. A stream full of red fish flows. Remesh had pictured the mother earth with trees along her thighs. “Every aspect of the painting represents women. I see myself as a fish swimming through water. I fell in love with a man when I was creating this. It represents my feeling of being a complete woman and reflects a subconscious desire to have a child,” says Uthara.
The exhibition showcased works of 21 established as well as upcoming artists such as Sara Hussain, Bindhi Rajagopal, Babita Rajiv, Jiji Ajith, Anju Acharya, Sreeja Pallam, Minimol MN, Reshmi Sreedhar, Meera Krishna, Celin Jacob, Biji KC, Smija Vijayan, Kripa Lalu, Gopika S Nair, Aswathy Rathish, Minnubabu P, and Yamini Mohan. Says O Sundar who conceptualised the show, “In the word, ‘She’, there is also a ‘he’. Behind a successful man is a woman and vice versa. This is a message to feminists. I feel there is an unnecessary fight between the sexes.”
Artist Soumya VN has tried to portray the relationship between nature and technology. A girl in a Kerala-style blouse and skirt lies sideways on a mattress with hibiscus flowers scattered around with a mobile phone that lies next to her. “I wanted to show my connection with the phone, but not in a negative manner. I stay in the hostel. Thanks to my phone, I am able to stay in touch with my family and friends,” says Soumya. The exhibition ‘She’ was a show of the women, by women not only for women, therein lies the enigma.