Saturday 5 November 2011

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.

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