A Very Contemporary Take on Traditional Kerala

KOCHI:
It is not just the international artists who are opening a world of new sights, sounds and touch to visitors at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2016. Eight Malayali artists, whose works are on display at the Biennale, seem to offer new insight to a traditional world.
“The Malayali artists participating here are showing varied works that are of international calibre,” says KMB curator Sudarshan Shetty.
“Cartoonist EP Unny’s work falls outside the expectation of the Biennale space, C Bhagyanath’s ‘Secret Dialogues’ is done on a traditional medium, while Anand’s ‘Map Makers and Map Breakers: Space-To-Time Along The Maps’, comes from his writing and looks like relics. The main question all the artists raise is, ‘what is traditional and what is contemporary?’”
Architect Tony Joseph’s ‘The Pavilion’ references everything from traditional Kerala homes to the kalari and the godowns that are characteristic of Mattancherry. “The elements in the interior of the pavilion further add to the sense of nostalgia by alluding to ideas from our cultural history, which is gradually being lost in the progress of time,” says Joseph.
Visitors are curious to know why KR Sunil chose Ponnani, a municipality in Malappuram district of the state for his black-and white photographic series titled ‘Vanishing Life-Worlds’.“I grew
up listening to old stories and went to Ponnani to discover that contrary to the norm in the state where people try to leave for new lands, the locals seem settled, seem content to live here and thus we find the old soul and culture of Ponnani seem uncorrupted,” says the photographer.
He gives the example of Abubacker, one of his subjects who gives away for free on a daily basis medicines worth about Rs 20,000 to Rs 40,000. “Such people are disappearing from society, these people with values,” he says.
PK Sadanandan’s mural art, based on the story of ‘Parayi Petta Panthiru Kulam’ on the clans of Kerala could not be more traditional, and yet for visitors it is a novel experience.
“It is probably the biggest natural colour mural in India,” says the artist. The 15mx3m mural is a work in progress with three of his assistants adding daily detail to the wall work over the 108-days of exhibition. The aritist makes his colours from stones, leaves, oil and tree sap and does not use any synthetic colours.
Bara Bhaskaran does not mince words about what he wants to achieve through his art. The Kochi-based artist says that he wants his “narrative of the local to be understood as an international story, like the literature of Gabriel Garcia Marquez”.
The many sketches in Bhaskaran’s ‘Amazing Museums’ depict tribal figures from Wayyanad, a slice of ancient and contemporary Bihar, portraits recorded on his travels around Kerala, and his illustrations done over a decade and a half for the celebrity column in a national magazine, featuring actors, politicians, sports stars and artists.
He says that KMB delves into the roots of the region and can contribute greatly to the understanding of ourselves and the influences of different cultures on our own.