A L L U V I U M - solo - Review

Indian Express news paper Review
30 Sep 2008 01:24:00 AM IST

View life through water hyacinth


K Surekha

VAST stretches of water hyacinth greet your eyes and cool your senses, taking your mind to sublime aesthetic and creative planes. Alluvium, Sebastian Varghese’s solo exhibition at Kashi Art Gallery in Mattanchery is a point where the metaphysical and the political balance. It’s an allegorical statement of the transience of life through the changes undergone by plants as seasons circle round. The large and small frames of water hyacinth floating thick on the waters is so realistic and at the same time one can’t help being carried away by the underlying tides of meaning. How the water hyacinth floats to and fro with the ebb and tide of waves and how it clings together for life have been brought out well by the deft handling of the colours and medium. Water colours bring out the transparency of what the artist is trying to say, it goes beyond the question of environment, he takes the local to the universal level and talks of life and death through the profound images.

Water hyacinth is the form that caught Sebastian’s fancy when he returned to Kochi after more than a decade of feeling an exile in the United States. The memories and experiences are deposited in the series of paintings as alluvium. Layers of meaning emerge in the layers of water hyacinth floating endlessly towards the horizon. Minute attention has been paid to detail, be it the colour of the leaves or the stem that stretches out repeatedly. You can see the mist and feel the ambience as the colours and forms in the works attract your attention. As you move on from Flora 1 to Flora 9 the changes undergone by the plants have been captured in depth by the artist.

Entangled between the leaves are man-made objects, objects that science and technology are proud of - the syringe, gloves, mobile phone, hoses, wires, bulbs, coils, locks, rubber slippers, water bottles. You can find the human presence as you shift your eyes from one frame to another and the larger canvases of life. Life looms large in the lateral and aerial views of the hyacinths that have been treated in a wonderful manner by the artist. The changes in the colours create a design of their own.

From the succulent green to drying brown life comes full circle just as man-made objects turn organic as they mingle with the plant. How the biodegradable objects rust and turn organic can be seen. Sebastian tries to balance the natural objects with the man-made ones. His smaller works are just zoomed images of the tiny objects hidden among the plants.

The gloves take on new meaning when zoomed just as the other objects do. The series ends with the bone of a large fish, its fins quite intact, posing a puzzle to viewers.

Alluvium is also about the memories and experiences of the artist and how art takes him to higher planes of life as depicted in the work.

The exhibition showcasing 21 paintings will run through October 11. -surekhak@epmltd.com