The arils of chaos


“An artist is always alone - if he is an artist. No, what the artist needs is loneliness.” I don’t know whether Shinod has heard of this famous sentence of veteran writer and painter Henry Miller. But before leaving for Russia to attend an art exhibition in 2010, he had sent his wife and daughter back to his native village in Kerala. It was a painful decision for this Kerala-born artist, but there was no choice. He wanted to be alone in his flat in Chennai, and didn’t want to be disturbed by even his closest friends. “I am busy with some new works. The international exhibition is nearing, and I have to finish at least five works before that,” he told me once we met at the office canteen.
Even though he was regular at work, I didn’t see him for a week after our brief meeting. One day, I walked into his house.
Brushes, blades, colour tubes, unfinished drawings, sketches… the usual setting didn’t strike me, but what attracted me was a couple of  works he had done a decade ago. The ‘UNTITLED’ ones that he painted while working in Delhi evoked a sense of nostalgia. The semi-symbolic feel created by using colours in a faded idiom was an attempt to begin with the most difficult tool. The selection of colours like grey and light yellow was not deliberate. It was the result of a sequence of thoughts that sprung from urban disturbances and emotional outbreaks.
No artist sticks to a particular colour or pattern for long. It was the experiment that he had done with colours that made Shinod what he is today. The journey to Russia to attend an International Art Symposium was a turning point in the life of this artist. He came back with a strong odor of RED. The erstwhile Communist land added a new list of colours to his palette. Inspired by the many shades of the Red, Shinod recently created a series of five paintings titled ‘Multitude’, focusing on chaos while living in the two metros in India. Delhi and Chennai...The presence of the crowd in red, blue and yellow exposes commotion-- of lives and times. People look like arils inside a pomegranate. Or a colony of red ants? With his refreshing shades, Shinod creates a world of magnifying woes. Have a close look at the canvas... You may find yourself on it, with a face that you couldn’t even recognise.
Shinod Akkaraparambil’s “Multitude” will be displayed at the United Art Fair at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi, between September 27 and 30.

 

Comments

M Girish Nair said…
I wish Shinod to conquer highest altitude with his multitude.
5:53 am
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