Getting an artist to create works with the walls of a gallery as canvas is a grit-filled reckoning and only the likes of Renu Modi could have pulled off this articulation with so much verve. Manjunath Kamath is one of those artists, who has in the past used his command over the contour to create works that were filled with satire and wit. The finest of evocations being his pink elephant so many years ago at Espace. But this time the drawings told another story. In an age when many artists do not draw, it would not be not be wrong to say that drawing is indeed an intimate act. It is also the most direct of creative acts involving the mind and its ramifications, the hand and well as the body. The first thing the hand makes is a drawing.
This archetypal aspect of drawing is what triggers Manjunath the most. What he does is question the medium through the use of materials and surfaces which do not traditionally pertain to it. References abound in these works, Manjunath incorporates fluid lithe lines that have the flow and beauty of calligraphy, but also the depth of anthropomorphic images.
If we looked closely at these works we would also discover that drawings on 19th century prints had more or less the same meaning conceptually. But it is also true that the underlying, pre-existing image of vegetal sinuous structures adds a layer of interpretation, unlike the blank sheet which is, instead, akin to a white screen on which to add or project an image. Then you already have a surface that tells you a story — the gallery wall.
The creation of the panoramic ebb tide that filled the walls was mesmeric in its genesis as the crux of an image. Then the act of drawing itself became a performance, and the scene that stirs forth becomes a sort of small world. As an image, the Vishnu like head might call to mind that of the little prince sitting and watching the sunset — one viewer said it Gautam Buddha in his quest for nirvana. But Kamath’s sense of subjectivity in injecting the wit in the form of hybrid structures conjures others references as well — loneliness, and humour ride a language of multiple tenors — but Kamath’s goal is to emphasise essence of the mastering of drawing through which opens up the mystery of art, which is ultimately the mystery of life.
The artworks when done on the walls have a life of its own which is autonomous, and independent — in that its value and its sense of substance exists beyond the meanings we lend to it. Consider, for example, “the era when archaeology had given an interpretation of the classic which turned out to be the total opposite of what classic art actually was. Back then, they defined it as ethereal, pure, white, and undecorated, while in modern times we have discovered that the classic was quite different. It was polychrome, a feast of colors for the eye, and hyper-decorative.”
But the different moods and modes of interpretations are always relative. Kamath’s ability to put a lot of relative, suggestive and subtle inputs of information into his works lends itself a fascinating foray so that it brings together a world of multiple intonations and annotations.
Then the act of creating in the gallery space is about the idea of artistic inspiration originating out of itself, if you will. You carry it inside of you, and wait for the moment of ingnition when you can lay it all out. A great artist once said: “In my opinion, 90 per cent of the time even the artist does not know exactly what he or she is doing, but does it nevertheless.
There is also a funny element to it, for there is a sort of need to actualise something in art through a creative act. Thus an artist could never be a murderer, because he/she is a mother, in a sense-they give birth to ideas and forms and compositions and creations. Manjunath’s performance reflects this notion of a world being given to others by the artist.
What entices is the sense of the artist’s authority, in the performance and the related working on the wall he turns his back to the public. He unconsciously accentuates a sense of mystery and doubt,and bravado and Bacchus like wisdom.
It was clear that Manjunath wanted to inspire an idea in the viewer that related not just to him but rather spoke to a much larger audience. Though the works were linear it had an inherent aristocracy, in how it presented itself within a space. In a recent debate in New York an artist said: “With sculpture we have that possibility of being able to build a monument. Yet monuments can no longer be built. They are no longer part of our artistic culture, but belong, rather, to our social culture.”
In my mind, Manjunath’s drawings were the monuments that could bear witness to a society caught in the throes of its own Karma.
Its clear that he has always been interested in coming to terms with a certain kind of failure and decadence.