Subtle are the emotions that spring forth from each painting. The corns popping out of the pressure cooker seem to celebrate a kind of freedom, like birds let out of a cage. Spanish painter Gayatri Gamuz looks at them with the eyes of a child. Titled ‘Explosion,’ the work takes on a new dimension. The mundane gets an extraordinary touch in her series, ‘Bodies and Elements’, on display at the Kashi Art Gallery in Fort Kochi till this month-end.
“The idea of this painting has incubated in me for years while my children were growing up,” she says. “They always dreamt of opening the lid while making popcorn in a pressure cooker which I forbid but let go at the fag end of the process when a few would fly out and they would clap in glee.” This emotion has been captured after a long time.
The same joy and celebrations are felt in the balloons that peep out from the opened gift carton. The painting of a letter with the words, ‘I Love You’, is quite subjective. The paper boat with a flag bearing the symbol of love pinned on it has you sailing between the past and present, ringing a bell of nostalgia. “When we create there is a mirror behind us,” says Gayatri. “I feel I am constantly defining myself through my work. In this case, yes, my work could be my autobiography.”
The people who have struck a chord in her life find their way into her works. Even the tension on the hands of the cello player can be felt as he sits with his back to the sea and legs in water as a huge wave rises up behind him. The effect of his music is reflected in two images of a woman. One faces the viewer, while the other has her back to the sea.
“These paintings are composed with photos which I took,” she says. “I have a personal bond with most of the models.” On the painting of a baby seated on a goat, titled ‘Dawn’, she said that she clicked the goat years ago when she was visiting a friend in Thiruvannamalai in Tamil Nadu. “It’s my photographer friend Monica’s baby who is from Portugal,” she says. “She sent me a snap with a nappy when I asked for a naked one but later I realised that the napkin was a perfect accident.”
She paints emotions that move her. “The inspiration has to be connected with deep emotions,” she says. “Poetry and beauty is what art is all about, without which the world will be a barbaric chaos. Once while I was trying to define my statement that I was too poetic, a gallery-owner said that collectors do not like poetic words. I did not say anything because I am usually slow in giving answers but if what the owner said is the truth, I feel sad.”
Gayatri, who was born in Spain, dreamt of faraway lands as a child and visited India at 21, where she met Anand her husband. “I paint human beings but it is never about identification with any nationality or gender,” she says After this exhibition she plans to go to Thiruvannamalai where she has a lakeside art collective, Yeri Karai Kala Mayyam, to take a break from painting and spend some time with her family. “I am also preparing for an exhibition at Cuenca in Spain in 2012-end.” she says.