CHENNAI: Artist Hemalatha Venkataraman is never the one to put her creative brain to rest. She lets it actively contemplate concepts, colours, and combinations, which often manifest in the form of art series spanning days, weeks, and sometimes months. In 2018, it was a miniature tribute to Madras — the love of her life — and its monuments.
In 2019, it was the #100daysofTeabagArt, of which she has completed 83 days. In June 2021, during the pandemic, it was a Tamizh Typography project (an ongoing one) to raise awareness of the language she grew up with. Her latest #OneHundredPortraitsProject kicked off on April 23, 2022.
For the love of pop culture
For her recent series, the Ohio-based architect-turned-experience strategist is inspired by the digital collages and artwork of Kara Walker, Natasha Shaneek, Dewey Saunders, Ernesto Artillo, Malvi Bharmani, Sarah Kaushik, Seher Khan, Shilo Shiv Suleman, and many others from whom she borrowed pieces and parts of techniques to develop a style of her own. “I’ve been meaning to explore more botanical, fauna, elemental illustrations, digital painting and collage, and portraiture for a while now. Book covers and movie posters are a huge inspiration for my everyday art-making,” shares Hema, who moved to Ohio from Chennai a few years back for her higher studies.
In this series, she will be experimenting with digital paintings with portraiture where the subject will be photographs and everything else will be digitally sketched. The subjects featured are personalities she looks up to in her professional and personal life. The first seven posts are dedicated to her favourite actresses. “If you know me, you know I love women as a central theme in my work — the ferocious, the vulnerable, the nonchalant, the rage, the yearning...all of it. I love capturing the essence of women in a range of emotions. Using flowers does not necessarily symbolise vulnerability, it can also mean being powerful and resilient. For instance, take actress Silk Smitha in my series. She rose like a phoenix but all we did was talk about her from a glamorous lens. Why don’t we look at her as just a woman? They need to be celebrated. I want to portray them as angry and disappointed because women are not afforded that kind of emotions,” she points out.
Expressions that speak
Soon, she also explored the idea of artworks involving her favourite actors. “I thought about the subject of botanical illustrations, flora, fauna, birds, fruits, animals, and colours, and wondered if male actors (especially typically masochistically portrayed Indian actors) would make good subjects to go with this illustration series. I feel like women naturally flowed better towards depictions of vulnerability and a range of emotions. I was and still am more open to the idea of showing a woman’s range of emotions, as an artist. But, as a feminist, I am strong in my convictions that men be allowed their range of emotions without being trapped by toxic masculinity and heteronormative standards, in art, media, and pop culture,” she explains.
And, it was for this reason that she has portrayed men as vulnerable, enraged, sad, disappointed, happy, flirty, and all those emotions in a very everyday and commonplace manner. Men with flowers in their hands, beards, and hair. Men with floral prints. Men with birds and random animals, and being comfortable doing everyday things and feeling everyday feelings sans performative masculinity. “I went for photos of some of my favourites I find to be more open and non-conventional for this set of digital illustrations/collage. Rest assured, I would be coming back to the actresses again but I felt like this was important with this body of work. These are actors close to my heart,” she adds.
A stickler for ethical and mindful practices, she ensures due credits are given to fellow artists. “No image I’ve used in this carousel (of the latest series) belongs to me. I select photographs based on doom scrolling multiple sites. If I find the person then I give the credit. With this series, I will be including more people of mettle and not just film celebrities,” she assures.
Sharing her insights on what it takes to dabble in multiple projects, some work-in-progress and some nearing completion, she shares, “When there are too many inspirations around you, the brain is always brimming with ideas. I like working on many mediums simultaneously. That said, I’ve had many comments and messages asking me about prints of the series. I’m working on figuring out how/where to set up an online store soon. Until then, my plates are full with commissioned projects and my day job,” she shares.
For details, visit Instagram @hemuvenkat