A sea of heads, stare riveted to an object. On closer look it is a television.The community viewing of the TV, a common enough sight in our villages is given a touch of the baroque with plush frames, thick drapes and frills.There is something endearing about this scene as it transforms the ordinary into fantasy.
In his recent set of paintings called Theatre of Life, S.G.Vasudev turns the quotidian business of daily life into a lavish stage show, an extravaganza that dazzles with its sheer theatricality. The staged and grandioces way he treats daily situations can sometimes be very funny and witty although they are always tinged with a sense of poignancy and irony.He converts everyday travails, drawing room antics, follies and foibles into important acts worthy of the spotlight.
Vasudev’s series is a gentle satire on contemporary modern life, in which the need for recognition and putting on an act far outweighs anything else.The sense of self becomes distorted as the individual becomes an exaggerated prototype: a caricature spawned by mass media, aspirations and social mores.The heavy borders and drapes, the excessively ornate borders intensify the hollowness of the images.There is both despair and sense of the comic in the situation.
As a satirist Vasudev is benign and gentle.He pokes fun without offending.His spry wit and his natural flair for caricature was evident in his early works like Hayavadana, where the horse like figure was used to depict politicians and their ilk.
In the recent works of the series Theatre of Life, Vasudev creates a complex visual idiom to convey his message. In the act of seeing we are twice captured. The canvas first waylays us with its hot swirl of colours, intense hues and prolific treatment of content.It draws you in, inviting your interest as a viewer. But then, in a deeper understanding of the sub text you slowly awaken to the realization that you are also the object of the artist’s attention, for no one is exempt from the Theatre of Life. The audience becomes both the spectator and the spectacle.
You notice how the props, the stage grandeur are just that. Under the veneer there are several layers of meaning to unravel. Theatre of Life is a microcosm that is abuzz with life-unpredictable and volatile.The artist gives you an impression that he wants none of the histrionics to be taken seriously.
Theatre of Life is in some ways a summation of Vasudev’s long journey through ideas.In the 70s and 80s Vrikshaoccupied prime space on his canvas.Nature was seen as a whimsical, powerful spirit and was portrayed in the leitmotif of the Vriksha. The Maithunatheme explored the man-woman relationship and the artist used this extend to all of creation.In the Eathscapes andHumanscapes, inner angst and darkness were depicted in grip black pictures. In the He & She series, large, eyeless, eerie heads haunt with their seeming apathy.
The heads is a theme that Vasudev has deliberated about for quite sometime now. From the eyeless faces of the He and the She series in the 90s he has moved on to a less somber mood. The faces with their unusual mid stance gazes, their seeming indifference to their environment are still frighteningly grim, but there is a newfound verve. Suddenly you see a flicker of warmth, an amber glow in the gaze. Even the colours Vasudev uses are telling: lilacs, brilliant blues,chres and oranges. These faces mystify and fascinate. Their mask like appearance complement the Theatre of Life series as well. These faces are as much part of the act in the stage of life.
The refrain of icons and motifs run like a thread through his work.Festoons, calligraphy, the elephant, leaves, stars and mountains find place in urban settings as well. There is an easy continuity in his works that run through the decades.His paintings are almost like sequels-one naturally following the other, so much like a musical piece or a season.United and intergrity play a crucial part in Vasudev’s world view.
His recent works are much more lush and sensuous.There is an ebullience that is childlike. He uses robust colours, his famous blues have deepened, and the fern greens, pale peaches and even the plush oranges are a far cry from the somber earth tones he was once so fond of. This renewed look at colour and form adds vigour to his work. An element of music and poetry has also seeped in and a trace of cinema finds way in the canvas by the use of fades and dissolves.This is understandable as Vasudev has always allowed aspects of other media to move into his work.He has been the Art Director for two award winning Kannada films Samskaraand VamshaVriksha. He has also done line drawings inspired by the poetry of his good friend and renowned folklorist and poet A.K. Ramanujan.
Theatre of Life bases itself on the premise of the world as a stage but it extends the tenet to a metaphysical plane. Especially so in the new works where you see Vasudev veer towards the philosophical act of abdicating the stage. He seems to suggest that it is the inner areana, more importantly the individual journey that must take centre stage.This denouement seems to sum up the essence of a greater part his oeuvre.
Manju P Pillai
