Baa, Baa, Black Sheep

Baa, Baa, Black Sheep

•    n.ramachandran

60 Watts Incandescent bulbs glowing yet, very dull in lit, mostly covered

with layers of dust settled unnoticed, surrounded by flies… oil soaked

newspapers, flows with the wind so gracefully to kill those flies, street filled

with walkers, Bullock carts, loading and unloading, randomly sitting and

masticating cows, with the smell of the many Provisional materials flowing

mixed together to form a alchemy in smell… misty bell jars closed with

stainless steel lids, with a variety of sweets, street lights, billboards, vehicles,

tables, vessels, dress, and many other materials they all tell tales… old god’s

images with turmeric splashes, some dust and flowers to adore them, faded

calendars predominated with the panjanghams, added life with the yellowish

tinge of the bulb light and dust… they have many things to show, give,

share, see, engage, and give our time to notice… each and every detail is an

Installation, each and every detail is in its ultimate grace, being… materialsman-

women-cows-cycles-dust-eatables-acids-dogs-space-wall, I see

distinction between them… but for them, there is nothing different from

themselves… they scold, they beat, they feed, they talk, they enjoy, they

mingle, they work together, every thing happens there, there is no

questions… only existence….

Yes, I can fill a whole book with comments about the experience I had with

them in the ‘periakadai veedhi’ (big bazaar) in an evening at

Kumbakonam… which had laid a strong trace in me… yes, they are living

installations, every material, every person, every transaction happening there

has an attitude to it… an experience to it…

Santhanam bring his experience of Kumbakonam or the other towns he had

experienced in his world, in his works with a strong belief of opening the self

to the outside space/environment… through his works predominated by

‘doors’. Though we proclaim spirit, as ultimate - body needs to be a vehicle

to explore the same… his doors are a bodily structure to get near his

experiences.

The doors are just an element/an outer shell in his works, but this physical

entity in itself has lots to evoke… they open into the world, they bring new

things inside, they stop few things out side, they are inclusive and at the

same time they exclude too…. This metaphor has lots to add to the work in

itself than what he consciously intends. It actually blurs the contours

between things and makes it a comment about the ‘minds’ we have in the

contemporary landscape. While globalization and its mercenary attitude to

time cannot be stopped neither can one stop missing the aimless wanderings

of the childhood.

The main essence seen is his work is, he eliminates human forms and only

paints the traces left by the humans. These traces are always in the forms of

posters, written words, numbers, scribbles, advertisements, EB code,

panchayat’s coding, and spontaneous graffiti etc. but, in reality these are well

studied by Santhanam that makes the viewer’s feel that they are no longer

seeing a work, by transforming their mind to connect with their own

experiences of nostalgia or dwell in un explored spaces.

As an person, I have always been in constant debate with the fact that I

don’t see any thing in the world as ‘creative’, ‘creativity’, a difference

between Artist and a person in normal life, Art work and objects that we use

daily etc.. . A little experience….. “Have pav baggi and Masala Chai connect

with a Lufthansa to Frankfurt eat a burger then go to London- Tate- see,

Carl andre, Duchamp and Mierless then take an auto, go to Tanjaur

restarunt and have full dose of Rasam & Thali. Then come and stand in the

Meena bazaar street ‘Hello Baiyah aat rupyako Chiken Biryani’.” – it may

look like bizarre/post modern/some magic realism or some other thing, but

this is happening to every one but few observe and absorb the moment.

And another example is some facts we read in newspaper or what we hear

from others, ‘stirs inside’ us a space and creates lot of probable images inside

us, which are thrown out to create more images.

“ready to face PAC, Manmohan writes to Murali Manohar Joshi- committee

will take appropriate decision at appropriate time, says Chidambaram”.

Every one reads these same words, but each time/each one responds

differently.

Some critics want to bind and put the works into a sachet/categories but in

actual it’s not, each human have a specific way of seeing and connecting

with things. They are bound in many dimensions and they are not

complete, where as, we are pushed to define ourselves as a whole, as artists,

writers, scientists and many thing to add… we also hate repetition and there

is only one thing we can’t repeat, ‘the action of intentionally killing oneself’,

other than that, every thing is repeated. Even if we say that there is

something else that cannot be repeated, even that is just words and not

action/experience.

I leave open to the time and space to judge the work. But what is definite is

the ‘process’. Even this writing is being typed ‘here & now’ to make this

paragraph. And the ‘energy transmission’ that accompanies this substantiates

all action.