KASARGOD: A young mother is hugging her baby, as her husband stands nearby, his hand on her shoulder. Three men are performing 'kolkali', a folk art indigenous to the northern region of Malabar, right behind the couple.
With the aid of the performers, the mother - 'Amma and Umma' - is holding the child to her chest and telling her the tales of Bekal Fort, 17-year-old MC Chitraraj explained, pointing to the 22-ft-high concrete sculpture he made from scratch.
'A Kiss for the Grandma', Chitraraj calls his creation. "The granny, of course, is the Arabian Sea," said the polytechnic student, who had spent his holidays and weekends over the last two years on the Bekal Beach, perfecting the sculpture.
The art installation is part of the Bekal Resorts Development Corporation's (BRDC) plan to beautify the Bekal Beach. Udma MLA K Kunhiraman had inaugurated the work back on May 25, 2018, when Chitraraj was just 14 years old.
The BRDC is also setting up a walkway called the Art Walk, which will comprise installations of paintings made by children and artists.Chitraraj, who was selected from a statewide contest to make the installation, started making sculptures at the age of 11.
He is a student of his father MV Raveendran, who is the chief artist at the Kannur Medical College Hospital, Pariyaram. His mother Usha Raveendran is working at the Karunya Pharmacy in the same hospital.
In 2018, Chitraraj was invited by the Union Ministry of Culture to represent the state in the National Cultural Festival, said a proud Raveendran. By now, the youngster has exhibited his work at several art galleries, including the Kerala Lalithakala Akademi.
To make 'A Kiss for the Grandma', he practised by creating six-foot concrete sculptures at his house. "I made several life-size structures before starting the work on the beach," he said. Ashish Thamban, Lakshmi Sudha, Aparna Vijayan, Manjima Mani, Abhinav Lal, and Govardhan -- who are his friends and fellow students of his father -- helped him complete the five sculptures, he added.
A similar concrete artwork called ‘The Sorrowful Mother’, conceived in 2008 and executed by renowned sculpture Kanayi Kunhiraman, 82, had been abandoned midway. The sculpture, which was a memorial to the victims of the endosulfan tragedy, has now been run over by wild bushes in front of the district panchayat office, where it was being built.