THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: After exhibiting his works in Egypt, USA and several Indian cities, Pushpakaran Kadappath is heading to Fort Kochi’s David Hall. His upcoming exhibition titled Tales, Real & Unreal features 40 black and white illustrations which were inspired by anecdotes from a bygone era. “I hail from a small but historically significant village in Thrissur called Velur. This is where a German Jesuit priest called Arnos Pathiri first started to learn Malayalam and Sanskrit—a banned language for outsiders during the 1700s.
Incidentally, this is also the land of the Indian Trojan Horse, once used in regional armed conflicts, nowadays seen during the Manimalarkavu vela,” explains Pushpakaran, who gained a scholarship of `10 lakh from New York’s Pollock-Krasner Foundation in 2014.
Getting inked
The 37-year-old reveals that legendary tales become his foreground of expression via black Indian ink. At this forthcoming week-long showcase, Pushpakaran lets elements of magical realism and absurdity seep into his renderings, as he attempts to start adialogue on social criticism with the viewer.This isn’t the first time that the RLV alumnus has used timeworn tales to connect today’s socio-political dots. His previous solo exhibition called An Untold Story By Grandma did the same.
“The idea is to tell a story with each drawing. Some works feature relatable subjects like ‘how technology disrupts an entire generation of humans’. But, most of my black ink depictions deal with absurd topics including ‘the travelogue of a dream’,” states the sculptor-turned-illustrator, iterating that it’s important to give space to each viewer and let them derive their own meaning from the drawings.
From August 5-12 at David Hall.
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