Prima Kurien squirms at the thought of being called a curator. The new art show titled ‘The Shape Things Will Take’ which she has curated indicates the changing shape of her mindscape. Prima confesses to being a compulsive day dreamer, who has never worked in accordance with the conventionally appropriate. Her choice of projects depends more on the artist’s personality than the work. The latter she says, will be strong if the mind behind the idea is unwavering. That’s why working with Valsan Koorma Kolleri and Puneet Kaushik on their new exhibition instantly appealed to her. “I can relate to their thought processes. I understand the nuances of their creations. They are working round the clock, ideating, introspecting and implementing, and that’s an energy I relate to,” she says.
The thought of bringing two artists from two different generations, with two different sensibilities, approaches to negotiating space and material and different styles of working, could seem like a challenge to the onlooker, but to Prima, it was a thing of joy. “Like me, they are unfazed by conventional art practices, free minded individuals who aren’t driven by any need for validation. Through the years, both Valsan and Puneet have created their individual vocabulary, which helps them evolve as artists and human beings. The medium becomes them and they become the medium,” says Prima who is seemingly driven by the same impulse of thinking, believing and doing things differently. Her parents called her wildly impractical. Her teachers fretted about her future as she would be constantly gazing outside of the classroom during classes, lost in her thoughts. But it is through it all, she says, that she found happiness.
That joy extends to everything she touches. Her latest show is an exhibition of drawings and installations, which she admires everyday. She first stands in front of Valsan’s works—copper wires weaving together lost and found objects with history and archaeological meaning, viewing them intently for a while. Puneet’s works are autobiographical. “I don’t get bored of watching the same thing again and again. It offers a new perspective each time,” she smiles.
Kolleri’s watercolours on paper, pastel on paper and his copper installation, all cry out for attention. They are assembled in scientific, mathematical and engineered harmony. “In each work, I play with the mind, body and feelings. Only then can I rekindle the other invisible dimensions of my psychology and bring out the best through my works,” says Kolleri, who never trusts mirrors or photographs as they never reveal the complete picture. To understand the self completely, one must tune into the various aspects of the human personality.
Most of Kaushik’s works involved coral beads and ink and paper pulp in square white frames. Along with being aesthetically sound, each piece narrates an individual childhood story. For instance, ‘Indelibly Tagged,’ has been created with several small laundry tags, stitched closely on a long piece of ivory colored gauze. “This takes me back to the years when these tags were used regularly. Now, they have been replaced by paper ones. They are also symbolic of the ‘tags’ each one of us acquire as we grow. In a sense, they tag along with us for our entire lives, whether we like it or not,” says Kaushik.
At the end of the day, both the artists and their curator agree that shedding the baggage of those tags is not only necessary, but is also a prerequisite to evolving as humans. Art in a sense, at least for the three of them, is a common language through which they communicate their eccentricities—not to seek approval, but to allow the process of complete acceptance and appreciation to take over their way of looking at what they create, and what the other person creates. At the end of the day, to understand your own work, Valsan adds, it is important to analyse and assess the another person’s ideas dispassionately. Only then can you truly succeed.
