He is out to portray the dark side of life at a time when few dare to expose the suffering of the struggling and the wounded in society. Vinu V V, an artist from Kakkanad, endeavours to exploit his talents to bring out the woes of the marginalised section of society.
The painting and sculpture exhibition, ‘Parting the Sea of Hell’ at the Buddha Art gallery in Greenix Village is his first solo exhibition.
Eight paintings of a series titled ‘don’t read me into everything’ and the sculptures in the series ‘making visible the rejected and fragmented’ bring out the plight of the destitute and the injustices meted out to the weaker section. As the titles suggest each work delves into the problems and endless woes of the marginalised. “Being a Dalit, this is my effort to showcase another section still under discrimination,” says Vinu.
Vinu portrays the defects prevailing in the social setup and the need for social justice through most of his solo portraits. The portraits show various levels of discrimination in different perspective.
Every art will have an experiential touch of creativity. Vinu mixes his memories, visuals that have touched him and his own experiences on the canvas to bring out his views.
He firmly believes that his solo portraits can effectively convey the theme than anything else.
A painting with a man sitting and reading a book, the lyrics of Poikayil Appachan as background conveys the issues related to slavery.
“Women and Dalits are facing the same situation in society now. I am expressing the experiences of many,” says Vinu. Caste discrimination in society delineated through another portrait with a man carrying two polythene bags, one black and another white. Vinu has used water colour with which he is comfortable to portray his ideas. He also experiments with oil pastels and oil.
The sculptures exhibited are unique for the materials used. Apart from the ordinary things, Vinu makes use of a type of grass called ‘mudipullu’ for the frames. Items like thorns, needles, thread, key, mud tins, mud camera, sickles, binoculars, tree branches, find their way into his works and are used in extraordinary ways. He says that continuous observation of events and objects are necessary to create an idea.
Vinu who loves poems and stories studied sculpture at RLV College, Tripunithura. He works on sculpture for his daily bread. But contracted works do not prevent him from pursuing his creativity during leisure time. He is in the field for past 15-years. “My friends support me in all my ventures and are good critics too,” say the 38-year-old artist.
The exhibition will conclude on April 10.
