THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In Yeldose Ezhattukai’s world of colours Christ is a spiritual epitome rather than religious. The artist has applied his theological grounding to portray Christ in different perspectives. One of the noteworthy features of his works is that, the cross, an image almost inseparable from that of Christ, appears nowhere in the paintings. Yeldose has reasons to supply. “The cross gains importance when it is highlighted. In my paintings, I give prominence to Christ rather than on what he was crucified on.”
So, in his paintings, the crucifixion is portrayed sans the cross. All what we see on the canvas representing the moment is the face of Christ smeared in blue colour. “The blue colour represents the spiritual mind of Christ. It conveys his passive state of mind during the moments before he was taken for crucifixion,” he explains.
On another, we find Christ in an out-of-the-ordinary appearance. Jesus is bald headed wearing the crown of thorns and several butterflies are fluttering around him. Through the work, the artist has attempted to represent Christ as a perfectionist, who was not moved by any temptations.
“I came to this concept as there is a tendency in society to give gentlemanly attribution to clean shaven men. The butterflies representing transient worldly pleasures were portrayed to show how Jesus was not influenced by them.”
The painting is perhaps an example of the conscious effort on the side of the artist to underscore the significance of spirituality in human life. Two of his paintings carry this message in particular. In a beautiful landscape painting, a girl converses with a fish. The fish, according to Greek theological history, represents spirituality. In another, there is a man surrounded by so many fishes and flowers, conveying the need to preserve spirituality amidst the distractions of worldly pleasures.
“In this universe, nothing remains eternal other than faith. Identifying with our inner self therefore is important,” Yeldose says. Underscoring his statement is a painting where we see two transparent images in green, one inside the other. The inner image, which is smaller, represents the sub-conscious mind and the other represents the conscious mind.
In the exhibition, titled ‘Levels of Christophenic Desires’, 21 paintings in acrylic are displayed. Yeldose, who hails from Ernakulam, is a teacher at Global Public School, Thiruvaniyoor. The exhibition at Vyloppilli Samskriti Bhavan will conclude on Friday.
Timing: from 10 am to 6.30 pm.