Tangible elusiveness
A part of "Affidavit", the exhibition by Bharathesh G.D. at Bar1 (May 12 to 14), one faced on entering the space was meant, as the title suggested, to only document or merely indicate the character of the works he had displayed in Bern after his Swiss residency last year.
Without being able to experience it as art, one gathered that the series revolving round "Sound Signature" 'where language takes form and sound remains abstract' proved the mutually responsive but enigmatic and resistant to measurement interdependence of what ones sees and hears.
Although the effort at somewhat evoking the feel of the Swiss event through screening a silent video did not succeed, the viewer could realise how much the current preoccupation with synaesthesia came from elements dormant in his earlier multi-media endeavours.
This led to the best results in the new sculptural installation which based on Bharathesh's familiar fascination with very intense, overbearing and raw sensations that trigger a layered potential of not exclusively divergent associations of meaning, while an intuition of dynamic and strong but not quite clear processes and emotions arising is generated.
If one found such approach to art-making suitable to the nature of the social and natural environment in India before, the impression persisted this time too.
The installation "Remains as it can" indeed enhanced the premonition of several levels and manifestations of things observed in their shaping, the very impermanence of the main substance used underscoring the powerful yet ungraspable impact of the phenomenon simultaneously on different senses.
In the dim room, one first felt the blend of the aesthetic and the rough, as three simple, black pedestals covered in glass carried dark, serpentine bodies that expanding emerged from tiny chemical tablets normally used in fire crackers during festivals here.
Slowly, one began to notice that a laser beam grid cut across the forms making them burn at some points. The red lines in the air, becoming more lucid amid smoke and yet intangible, generated grainy, glowing wounds in the curving volumes whose almost ornamental curlicues acquired a sensuous coarseness that let one remember organic life and human skin.
Smelling the partly natural, incense-like aroma and attuning oneself to the sharp-dull-cracking-windy sounds recorded while handling the material, one could gauge the ambiguous, subtle and irresistible force of the imperceptibly exploding substance that unfolds by itself and which doomed science tries to name in chemical formulae and span within laser rays.
Even if the burning was too slow to spot, the awareness that everything there would eventually turn into ashes heightened the aura of life ever processing itself and fragile in its mutating expressiveness.
This piece being truly powerful, one may not have paid equal attention to the video screened nearby, especially that it did not always function well.
One from the "Sound Signature" cycle, it took advantage of the hall architecture so as to conjure a somewhat painting-like frame for the picture in a recess, both elements of the video creating flickering abstract patterns and stretches of pastel hues that may have let one think of landscape.
Whereas the artist's explanation helped the spectator feel the sculptural pieces better, coming to know here that the very pleasant visuals had been drawn from retina and eye scans did not really flesh out the intended content and left one wondering whether to connect the rhythm with sound.
Farming abstraction
The display of paintings by Roshan Sahi which happened some time ago at Jaaga looked unpretentiously nice but made one wonder about the anachronistic the manner in which they handled abstraction.
The saturated brightness of the few smallish compositions was muted on a cultured note without overstressing contrasts but bringing out gentle pulsations from underneath.
Against the large white backgrounds, the works added together to aesthetic design.
The viewer was taken by their innocence but at the same time baffled by the date nature of their content that in fact could be associated with early phases of European Modernism, something one does not encounter much here nowadays.
Evidently non-representational in their look and intention, they works nonetheless appeared to be compelled to hold abstract forms within relatively defined contours of forms close to geometry, as though the artist did not have enough courage yet to free himself from representation at least in such terms.
The motifs of repeating varied arching shapes and fanning out ones with straight lines allowed one think of Futurist or even Vortricist precedents, original ones as well as absorbed by older art school teaching in this country.
Marta Jakimowicz
A part of "Affidavit", the exhibition by Bharathesh G.D. at Bar1 (May 12 to 14), one faced on entering the space was meant, as the title suggested, to only document or merely indicate the character of the works he had displayed in Bern after his Swiss residency last year.
Without being able to experience it as art, one gathered that the series revolving round "Sound Signature" 'where language takes form and sound remains abstract' proved the mutually responsive but enigmatic and resistant to measurement interdependence of what ones sees and hears.
Although the effort at somewhat evoking the feel of the Swiss event through screening a silent video did not succeed, the viewer could realise how much the current preoccupation with synaesthesia came from elements dormant in his earlier multi-media endeavours.
This led to the best results in the new sculptural installation which based on Bharathesh's familiar fascination with very intense, overbearing and raw sensations that trigger a layered potential of not exclusively divergent associations of meaning, while an intuition of dynamic and strong but not quite clear processes and emotions arising is generated.
If one found such approach to art-making suitable to the nature of the social and natural environment in India before, the impression persisted this time too.
The installation "Remains as it can" indeed enhanced the premonition of several levels and manifestations of things observed in their shaping, the very impermanence of the main substance used underscoring the powerful yet ungraspable impact of the phenomenon simultaneously on different senses.
In the dim room, one first felt the blend of the aesthetic and the rough, as three simple, black pedestals covered in glass carried dark, serpentine bodies that expanding emerged from tiny chemical tablets normally used in fire crackers during festivals here.
Slowly, one began to notice that a laser beam grid cut across the forms making them burn at some points. The red lines in the air, becoming more lucid amid smoke and yet intangible, generated grainy, glowing wounds in the curving volumes whose almost ornamental curlicues acquired a sensuous coarseness that let one remember organic life and human skin.
Smelling the partly natural, incense-like aroma and attuning oneself to the sharp-dull-cracking-windy sounds recorded while handling the material, one could gauge the ambiguous, subtle and irresistible force of the imperceptibly exploding substance that unfolds by itself and which doomed science tries to name in chemical formulae and span within laser rays.
Even if the burning was too slow to spot, the awareness that everything there would eventually turn into ashes heightened the aura of life ever processing itself and fragile in its mutating expressiveness.
This piece being truly powerful, one may not have paid equal attention to the video screened nearby, especially that it did not always function well.
One from the "Sound Signature" cycle, it took advantage of the hall architecture so as to conjure a somewhat painting-like frame for the picture in a recess, both elements of the video creating flickering abstract patterns and stretches of pastel hues that may have let one think of landscape.
Whereas the artist's explanation helped the spectator feel the sculptural pieces better, coming to know here that the very pleasant visuals had been drawn from retina and eye scans did not really flesh out the intended content and left one wondering whether to connect the rhythm with sound.
Farming abstraction
The display of paintings by Roshan Sahi which happened some time ago at Jaaga looked unpretentiously nice but made one wonder about the anachronistic the manner in which they handled abstraction.
The saturated brightness of the few smallish compositions was muted on a cultured note without overstressing contrasts but bringing out gentle pulsations from underneath.
Against the large white backgrounds, the works added together to aesthetic design.
The viewer was taken by their innocence but at the same time baffled by the date nature of their content that in fact could be associated with early phases of European Modernism, something one does not encounter much here nowadays.
Evidently non-representational in their look and intention, they works nonetheless appeared to be compelled to hold abstract forms within relatively defined contours of forms close to geometry, as though the artist did not have enough courage yet to free himself from representation at least in such terms.
The motifs of repeating varied arching shapes and fanning out ones with straight lines allowed one think of Futurist or even Vortricist precedents, original ones as well as absorbed by older art school teaching in this country.
Marta Jakimowicz
Inspired by the divine atmosphere Shanmukha Priya and Hari Priya, well known as "Priya Sisters", rose to great heights and cast a spell on a large audience. Priya Sisters chose a few gems from the Karnatic musical firmament and made the ragas shimmer. 
The moving spirits behind the award include some distinguished and cutting-edge contemporary artists; hence the traditional character of this exhibition may have surprised someone not familiar with the history of local art education. To remember R M Hadapad here, then, lets one understand the gesture of warm regard. 
Sangeetha, who gave a Mohiniattam dance recital for the Every Friday Cultural Evening Programme, has practiced all the three forms - Bharathanatya, Mohiniattam and Kathakali, by different gurus and is continuing her training under Kalamandalam Hymavathy, Retired Professor and Department Head for Mohiniattam, Kerala Kalamandalam.
