Crescent moon or a gigantic sickle in the sky? In his latest showcase of art works titled Chora: The Tools at Art Houz in Alwarpet, Shinod Akkaraparambil has combined his two childhood loves — workman’s tools and the Milky Way. And one of the most striking paintings on display is that of a man lying flat on his back and gazing up at the stars and ‘sickle moon sky’.
“I was brought up in Kerala and one of the first things my father taught me was carpentry,” Shinod says. Turns out he was barely three or four when he developed a fascination for the wooden plank used as a leveller (cheneer as they called it in Malayalam). “I would imagine that it was a car or a bus and play with it, long before I knew what it was used for,” he recalls with a smile.
In addition to childhood memories, the framed watercolors are also laced with metaphoric messages. Like the large canvas of a trees with trunks adjoining the wooden handles of saws. The moral? According to the artist it’s, “Wood cuts wood — the wood that was nourished by this same tree is cutting it down.” Also watch out for a life-size chisel suspended high above one’s head. Yes, it certainly sounds menacing, but the tool has been used as a canvas for a galaxy of stars, so that helps!
We ask Shinod what he’s working on next, and he points at the painting with the saws and says, “Right now I have an installation of a six-foot long saw in mind. So I think what’s next is an extension of this exhibition, Chora part II.”
Chora: The Tools will be on display at Art Houz, Kasturi Rangan Road, till May 11.