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 The soul of Kerala - Padma Jayaraj e-mail: padmajayaraj@gmail.com Photos courtesy the artist August 20, 2023 Days of Colours (Aug 10 to 14, 2023) showcased by Gireesan Bhattathiripad, in the Kerala Lalithakala Akademi, Thrissur, revealed glimpses of the soul of Kerala. His oeuvre from 1988 to 2023, display the land, its people. The spirit that has nurtured the terrain stands in glory, in an abundance of colors that portrays the sun-drenched landscape fostered by rains, its hills and valleys spread over in variegated blossoms. Although abstract in technique, his works belongs to the category that can be described as scenic. Geographically cut off from the mainland by the Western Ghats, awash by a number of rivers that flow and fall into the Arabian Sea, the soul and spirit of Kerala has its own uniqueness. It is this rareness that the artist has chosen to showcase.  Gireesan Bhattathiripad Trained in the Gurukula tradition by artist Ganapathy of Peringod, in the hinterlands of a hilly region, Bhattathiripad has travelled along a lone path experimenting unusual and variegated techniques of painting. He is a prolific painter who revels in colors, working in unheard of ways. As an artist, he confides that he "feels possessed". And all his paintings are untitled. And hence there is that freedom to enjoy one's own view of an untitled piece of art. Here we perceive an art that has sprung from his creative fountain with the stamp of uniqueness that manifest in untold ways.  Temple procession We feel a sense of history from aboriginal days to the Tantric, in venerating the female principle, as the Mother Goddess. Bhagavathy, as known in local parlance, surveying her land and people riding on an elephant, with the glowing sacramental lights in darkening night is captured in the mystique of the old world hue of a twilight procession before the advent of electricity. It is a beautiful abstract painting glowing in golden yellow in the darkness of the night. The aboriginal history of Kerala begins with this painting. This abstract painting in minimalism is a tribute to the folk history of Kerala that is evident in the dominance of women to date in its social history - a unique signature of Kerala considering the other states of India.  Ganapathy  Mt Kailash Of course, Ganapathy as a deity in many numbers and forms, also as a tribute to his Guru, is a fascinating lot. 'Dancing Ganapathy', as the patron of dancers has a charm of its own.The Buddha series in black and white culminate in the huge colorful painting of Mt Kailash on Buddha Poornima day. That the spiritual theme that begins from the southernmost tip of the Western Ghats reaches its heights in the Himalayas, is no accident. And, there is one lone huge painting of Devi, the Mother Goddess in Tantric style, which represents the soul of creation. Down on the land where Mother Earth is glowing in golden yellow, where there is only the Sun and the rain, the mother and her child, in myriad modes of communion is a recurring theme. We feel the variegated moods of inseparable union between Nature and the human being, and the helpless human child nurtured by the persona of the woman. Each painting displays its own mood, different, varied, never a repetition.  Mother & child  Exodus of the youth in search of livelihood has been part of our social history since the world wars. It has continued creating the Gulf stream that has changed the face of Kerala in recent decades. That it still goes on to other parts of the world is rather enigmatic. Bhattathiripad has chosen the theme projecting their hope with his color scheme. The golden yellow, streaming up in the horizon, is the light of hope. There are three paintings with the same theme. The third one shows the present reality of teenagers with a girl in the middle of the migration wave, moving towards the light. The rest of his paintings deal with the variegated colors of the flora, prismatic and joy inducing. The dominance of golden yellow is singular in his color scheme. The artist is in love with the sunkissed land aglow when the laburnum is in bloom to celebrate Vishu, harbinger of the onset of the monsoon season, something special for Kerala when the rest of the subcontinent is sweltering in heat waves.   The photographic reality of Earth as a planet on her celestial path seemed like a vision. I asked him about his technique of painting which seemed enigmatic. He said it's varied according to his moods. He has resorted to the unknown and experimental, not just brush strokes; used a knife; at times poured and spread paint with his hands and fingers in layers, for creating different patterns. And then, he smiled at me..., inscrutable unfathomable. As I climbed down the steps and went out, I saw many like me moving out of the Akademi gate with a glow on their face. Indeed, "A thing of beauty is a joy for ever."  Padma Jayaraj is a freelance writer on the arts. |
