Artist Tom Vattakuzhy’s canvases reflect his surroundings — specifically the neighborhood in Muvattupuzha, a municipality in Ernakulam, where he has lived since childhood. “At first sight, my paintings may seem to dwell on the mundane. Yet, each work unfolds into layers of meaning and experience. They grow through a constant dialogue with the canvas, absorbing fragments of my lived world — the rhythms of daily life, memories, the books that have shaped me, and the films that linger in my mind. All of these merge, sometimes subtly, sometimes profoundly, within the work,” he says, introducing the 16 works that feature in the exhibition titled ‘The Shadows of Absence’. “What I strive for is to let my paintings remain close to the pulse of life, where the ordinary reveals its depth,” he adds.
Taking place at Vadehra Art Gallery till September 13, the canvases at his debut solo in Delhi introduce the audience to his world and builds a personal connection with the artist through that.
The scenes are ubiquitous — from Birthday that has children dressed in festive caps making merry as an aged figure gazes out of the window, to the canvas titled Girl with Balloon, where a girl blows a balloon and another figure looks on, set against bright pink walls dimmed with darkness. If Seller of Stars has people celebrating under star-shaped Christmas lights, in Lady Leaning on Tree, a female figure appears to be lost in thought.
Vattakuzhy, 58, suggests how what appears central may not always be most significant in the ideation of the work. So Lessons of Life-5 might have numerous protagonists — including a man assisting an infant walk, girls playing along, a woman peeping out from behind the curtain — but Vattakuzhy observes how in the composition, for him, the shadow of a bird falling on the ground was perhaps most central when he began the painting. “For me, every canvas is a long process, and the main protagonist might actually be hidden somewhere… In this case, it could be the predator in the shadow, the hidden bird that is looking from somewhere closeby,” notes Vattakuzhy.
Painted over a span of two years, every canvas in the exhibition might appear to tell a story but Vattakuzhy clarifies, “There are lucid narratives with several layers, but I want viewers to interpret for themselves.”
Young girl with a jar (PICS Courtesy: Vadehra Art Gallery and the artist)
Though the figures seem to fleet in and out in the realistic portrayals — with some protagonists common among the works — the interplay of light and shadow appears crucial. The origins of this could perhaps be traced to his childhood. With his parents engaged in agriculture, he spent hours guarding paddy fields, watching shadows and admiring how the appearance of surroundings would change at different times of the day, depending on the sun. “I would spend the time marvelling at how the light and shadows seem to be playing with each other,” says Vattakuzhy, who is a graduate in art from Santiniketan. He pursued his masters in printmaking from MS University, Baroda.
In his artwork, the light emerges as a form, a witness to what is visible and hidden. “Light itself becomes part of the work and plays a role in generating new meanings… All the elements put together make the paintings poetic,” says Vattakuzhy.
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Birthday (PICS Courtesy: Vadehra Art Gallery and the artist)
Commenting on it, curator of the exhibition and art historian R Siva Kumar writes, “…like the children, light is an active element in these paintings. It breaks in from every possible angle and side, brings certain things into visibility and pushes others into shadow. It brings the outer world into the paintings as shadows of invisible things and reflects the emotional weather of those who inhabit his painted interiors. With changing light, the mood shifts from the poignant to the ominous and other subtle shades in between. In other words, light is the artist’s representative in these paintings.”
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
