She has walked into an unknown territory, yet Chennai-based Parvathi Nayar’s works are not only technically perfect but also emotional. Her love for art and science and its unusual depiction through drawing is well-known. For Art Chennai’s Third Edition held recently, Parvathi created drawings rendered in graphite on wood. Titled “Ambiguity of Landscapes”, it was curated by Annapoorna Garimmella and Sindhura of Jackfruit Bangalore. Parvathi says, “The show looks at private and public spaces, in other words, at landscapes within the body and spaces outside in the world we live in. It questions the preconceptions that govern our act of seeing and aims at (re)connecting viewers to the intimate and the meditative, to the scientific and the poetic.”
Parvathi’s expressions are not only visual but also verbal. She is also a poet. Deeply perceptive and acutely insightful, her themes relate to the different dimension of episteme, creating a visual inquiry into topography, cartography, physiology or mathematics. On display were graphite on wood and paper, video installations, installation and photographs. She engages with the drawing medium, a labour intensive process, which is not popular with many artists. She adds, “Drawing is my core practice and I am driven by passion to express myself through pencil and graphite.” The amazing aspect of Parvathi’s show lay in demonstrating her superior drawing skills, fluid facility of her stippling technique, absolute dexterity and control in the use of the medium, as well as her excellent draftsmanship. Ingeniously devised and displayed, the visual sensation heightens the energy emanating from her works. The controlled power inherent in her works beckons but demands no contemplation on its meaning. Her stippled chiaroscuro presents motivated desire to a closer scrutiny of the complexities. The works have been titled Temporal Infinities, Deep Symmetry, Column Core, Under the Skin, Inside and Outside, Symmetry of the Everyday.
The photographs represent the fluidity of water as well as the solidity of ice cubes. They show correspondence with the stippled drawing technique. In the Symmetry of the Everyday, she has juxtaposed photographs of mundane objects capturing the inherent symmetry within; with drawings partially coloured in intense yellow or red delineating the textures. The varied descriptive and evocative titles have individual narratives, for instance, Column/Core is related to the spinal column detailed under a microscope. Temporal Infinities articulates mathematician Ramanujam’s engagement with his inventive discoveries. All these works offer perspectives on the landscapes of life intellectually, physically, emotionally with dramatic visuals of linear webs that incidentally reflects life’s many vital relationships . These patterns are the result of her technique. She says, “I use layers, fragments and obsessive forms of art-making to pose questions about how we reconstruct, perceive and live in our world”.
Visual Wonders
■ Drawings partially coloured in intense yellow or red.
■ Descriptive and evocative titles have individual narratives. Her work “Column/Core” depicts the spinal column detailed under a microscope.
■ Fluid facility of her stippling technique, absolute dexterity and control in the use of the medium.
■ Excellent draftsmanship.