As global tensions mount, nations are at war, and daily bomb blasts, rising death toll and scattered bodies of children become a daily occurrence, a bunch of artists from Kerala has decided to express their anguish in front of the world.
The powerful online exhibition titled ‘No War, No Violence’, which opened on May 1 on the website of Kochi Arts & Science Space (kartsci.org), addresses various concerns of postmodern, technological warfare.
Curated by Vladimir Esaulov, the founding trustee of the KASS Charitable Trust, with commentary by historian Johny M L, the show features 24 Kerala-based artists exploring the human cost of war and the hope for peace through painting, sculpture and digital media.
According to the website, the collective was formed through years of dialogue among artists committed to ‘art as active resistance.’ Several participants, such as Pushkin E H and Sajitha R Shankar, are known for addressing social injustice in their work while emerging voices like Shinod Akkaraparambil offer new perspectives on modern conflict.
Curator Esaulov says the exhibition is “a chorus of voices saying ‘enough.’ These artists come from different backgrounds, but they share a commitment to using creativity as a force against destruction.”
Pushkin’s works, part of his series ‘Being Humane Is Modernity. Nothing Else’, is in solidarity with the people of Palestine. His artistic statement opens with a stark quote from American writer Susan Sontag: “War tears, rends. War rips open, eviscerates, war scorches. War dismembers. War ruins.”
Yet amid the darkness, Pushkin incorporates botanical motifs, hinting at the potential for healing. “War is one of the most profitable industries on this planet,” he says. “Its buyers are the ‘powers of nations,’ and the result is the suffering of those who simply wish to live in peace.”
Jalaja P S’s ‘Floating Space’ offers a poetic reflection on resilience. “We are like tiny boats, overloaded with the wreckage of wars, floating on turbulent waters,” she writes. “But we continue to move forward, carrying fragments of what was lost.” At the centre of each of her works are Ambedkar, Sree Narayana Guru and Mahatma Gandhi. They are on a boat, sitting at the centre, people on either side rowing in opposite directions.
In a more meditative tone, Shinod Akkaparambil’s watercolour series ‘Between Scars and Stars: A Journey Through Conflict and Hope’ captures the dual nature of human experience — trauma and hope, despair and renewal. His abstract forms evoke emotional landscapes.
Johns Mathew takes a critical look at the machinery behind the brutal battles with his digital artwork titled ‘War’.
“War happens not because people hate each other — but because someone profits from it,” he writes. “My work is a mirror held up to those motives.”
The exhibition includes works by Anil Thambai, Gopakumar R, Harindran T K, Jalaja P S, Jaysree P G, Johns Mathew, Joshe Joseph, Madhu Venugopalan, Murali Cheeroth, Nijeena Neelambaran, Prasad Kumar K S, Radha Gomaty, Sajitha R Shankar, Santhosh T V, Sasi K K, Shijo Jacob, Sonya Joseph, Sreeja Pallam, Sukesan Kanka, Tensing Joseph, Tom Vattakuzhy, and Wilfred Kocheekkaran.
Despite the variety in medium and message, the artists are united by a collective belief that art can confront violence and inspire change.
As historian Johny writes in the exhibition note, “Art does not stop wars, but it can break the silence that allows them to continue. Every piece here is a refusal to let destruction have the final word.”