b l e n d . o f . r e a l i t i t e s

Wednesday, October 1, 2008 - THE HINDU NEWS PAPER - Article

Online edition of India's National Newspaper - Monday, Sep 29, 2008

A blend of realities

‘Alluvium’ provides an interesting melding of images

PRIYADERSHINI S.

The seasonal hyacinths that appear abruptly on our rivers and backwaters are the subject of Sebastian Varghese’s show, ‘Alluvium,’ on at Kashi Art Gallery. Just as surprising is their appearance their exit too is sudden. This transience or impermanence of animate and inanimate is the deeper interpretation of the works on show. Varghese is a thinking artist and moves from the obvious to the many realities that co-exist.

And blending these realities come easy to him as he straddles his many worlds, the two most inspiring and tangible being Kerala and America.

Varghese worked as a freelance artist with a book publishing firm in USA and travelled to several universities. Observing and imbibing the new world and never letting go of his intrinsic inspirations he melds them into his art. This immediately imparts a richer texture to the works. Besides he draws heavily from his studies in literature, quoting Keats and explaining why he calls the show so. “The word has a French origin. Running water carries along the good and the bad, the gemstones and the waste but when it slows down it deposits them. These layers of deposit are the alluvium. It is the same with memories too.”

Memories

And so memories meld with images, old and new. The hyacinths that clog and poison, suffocate and choke also appear pretty at times. They trap the everyday objects that float, the distasteful plastic bottle, the syringe, chappals, cell phones, wires and dead fish. This is life; the works proclaim matter-of-fact. But there is more to it than this. “It creates a surreal aqua space,” says the artist, a space where he can indulge in his world of fantasy and facts.

His use of watercolours as against opaque mediums is that water is almost interactive when put on paper. It waits for a reaction and these reactions keep changing with Varghese. The first day hyacinth is not the same on the second day. It has perhaps darkened, it has caught debris or it has broken and is floating away.

Fine detailing of the zoomed on green floats throw up soiled gloves, switches and the filth that settles on and is carried along to its finality.

An aerial take on the float gives the bird’s eye view where veined decay is setting in. The wet foliage is caught in shades of greens and browns and the layered mesh in darker shades. Varghese seems to be consumed in the complexities of the mind, the watery vegetation providing a fitting analogy.

Nine large works (40 x60”) and 11 small works (16 x12) are on the show in the Floral series and the smaller works are simply titled on the main subject, chappal, switch etc. taking the viewer right into the work. The show runs through October 11.