Inspiration is a bird that flaps its wings at a frenzied pace to take flight into a gratifying space that pumps adrenaline good enough to create a rush of great influence. Inspiration came as two simple words for artist Madhusudhanan—Narayana Guru. Narayana was a social reformer from Kerala, who has despite the atrocities aligned with his condemned fate, rose to become a revolutionary who is remembers for his outright rejection of casteism. To Madhusudhanan, he is Godfather, who anchors his mind, as well as his artistic practises in the right moral standards.
For his new body of works too, he sustains the supreme ideas from his guru’s philosophical text, Atmopadesa Satakam or ‘One Hundred Verses on Self-Instruction’ that consists of 100 stanzas describing actions for self-transformation.
The tile of this exhibition is Granite Lamp & Mirror, three things installed by his guru in Kerela’s temples in place of conventional deities, as a plaintive reference to his rejection of caste atrocities. In his teachings, Madhusudhanan finds solace. “Taking this as a starting point, I steer the conversation of social upheaval into the realm of the personal and political,” he says.
The vocabulary of his medium changes but the meaning remains the same. What glass as a medium says is the same as what charcoal professes. The way acrylic paints narrate a story, so do watercolours. They are all different articulations of the same palate, each important in their own right.
The recent body comprises oil paintings, sculptures, ink, charcoal and drawings, and were developed in the last two years. “The medium I chose gives into my social and cultural background. For instance, I come from Alappuzha in Kerala, known for its backwaters. The Kuttanad region covers the Alappuzha and Kottayam Districts of Kerala and here, most of the place end with the word kari, meaning charcoal because the land is buried with charcoal like substances. You have Amichakary, Ramankary, Oorukkary, Mithrakary, Puthukkary, Mampuzhakary and so on. This is where my fascination and inclination to work with charcoal comes from,” he says.
Similarly, light plays an important part. “Light is a meaningful medium and philosophical touchstone that runs through my works, whether in the creation of film, the metaphor of the lamp, or the stark tenebrism inspired by the lurking darkness of the 19th century Spanish painter, Francisco Goya’s later art,” he says.
His fascination with history becomes evident through his many reference to the colonial-era and casteism. In his contemporary suggestions, he takes viewers through cinematic interpretations, global war, and cultural issues that have defined the outline of the world, thusfar. “History is my greatest interest. I often pick historic moments and spin my ideas around it. History makes for a riveting subject,” he says.
Immediately, he points to the artwork titled Hunters in the Desert–II, in which he has portrayed Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama on goat skin. It highlights a very serious episode from the past—beginning of colonialism. “A goat is a sacrificial animal. Sacrificing denotes the death of an animal, . It speaks of Vasco da Gama’s entry into India, and initiating the process of slow enslavement akin to death,” says Madhusudhanan.
Through Granite Lamp & Mirror, he recalls historic anecdotes that serve the appetite of modern society. As they say, ‘doomed are those who can’t interpret history well’. Madhusudhanan is not one of them.
On till October 25, Vadehra Art Gallery in Defence Colony.
In a nutshell
For his new body of works, artist Madhusudhanan upholds Narayana Guru’s supreme ideas through his philosophical text, Atmopadesa Satakam or ‘One Hundred Verses on Self-Instruction’, that consists of 100 stanzas describing actions for self transformation.