I had known Pravin Kannanur only as a Theatre person and it was a pleasant surprise to discover his affair with the paint and the canvas when he had invited some of his friends to have a sneak peek at his paintings just before they were to be packed up for a show at Jehangir art gallery in Mumbai in September 2018. Memories of a huge painted canvas left to dry under the fan on the floor and walking around the studio space and discovering a mug that carried the remnants of a 'Core' in its core, still stay fresh from that visit. There was this lingering feeling that i could not catch the show in the gallery setting, and i was very elated and eager when i learnt that the show was opening in Chennai at the Inko center.
Pravin's Core is a meditation on the circular form. To the imaginative eye these paintings could invoke various manifestations of the circular frame in nature. It is fascinating to see so many varied versions of manifestations of the circular field. Though a 'genre'ification of these paintings would put them in the 'abstract' domain, i felt there was a definite rhythm and purpose to each of the painting. It's difficult to imagine that the rhythm was intended, it is more plausible that they are manifest and are dependent on the pluck of the viewer. The paintings appear to be like a piece of string tied to a bridge and waiting for the viewer to pluck them to play a flavour of music.
Just as one enters the main space of the gallery the huge painting, Luz, that faces the viewer invokes a grand cosmic event and easily steals the show. It invokes a brilliant explosion, frozen and pasted on wall; a brilliant yellowish plasma seeping through cracks in an exploding ball of the universe.
The painting Lucent, invoked a microscopic image of an eye. An eye naked and revealing, looked at with a microscopic vision, revealing its prominent bloodish veins and its bluish pupa. An eye, projecting out of its socket. It's interesting to see how depth and texture manifest in these paintings. One painting invoked a brilliant blue sky as seen from lying down and through a gap in an yellowish thatched roof. A greenish painting brings to life the waves trembling off a pool, thick with mossy greenery. A painting invoked the cross section of a trunk of a huge tree with all its Cambrian circles there was another that invoked the vision off a sparkler being circled around.
The canvasses varied in size from around 10 feet to a few inches in size. one of the smaller paintings that was placed over a bigger one offered a newer perspective.
I had chosen to visit the show on an evening when Pravin had planned to stage a performance pooling in music composer Martin Visser and performers Anoushka Kurien, Lakshmi Parthasarathy Athreya and Preethi Athreya to join him on an experimental exploration over two evenings of 'Score painting'.
On the first evening, Martin was playing on a sax from a graphical score sheet. The Music sounded like bursts of chaos, Chaithanya added to the Chaos with her vocal support and Eldho was on the synthesizer adding effects to the music.
The three performers had an almost 10 feet wide canvas and cans of paint to themselves. The canvas had a few tapes stuck on it in a pattern of concentric circular sections. The performers worked on the canvas, splashing paint and working on it with their feet, fingers , scrapes and little broom like brushes. Though it all looked playful, random and chaotic, constrained only by those concentric sections of circular pattern stuck on the canvas, a pattern that was distantly related to the Core was emerging.
The performers did not seem much bothered by the bursts of music from Martin's graphic score. However the music did set a mood for the viewers, adding zing to the chaos.
This performance offered one a glimpse of some of the methods of the artist and his techniques and i feel is very special for the artist opens up aspects of his process to the public.
The show and the performance was a beautiful culmination of the multi factedness of Pravin and his constant experiments with collaborative engagements.
Pravin's Core is a meditation on the circular form. To the imaginative eye these paintings could invoke various manifestations of the circular frame in nature. It is fascinating to see so many varied versions of manifestations of the circular field. Though a 'genre'ification of these paintings would put them in the 'abstract' domain, i felt there was a definite rhythm and purpose to each of the painting. It's difficult to imagine that the rhythm was intended, it is more plausible that they are manifest and are dependent on the pluck of the viewer. The paintings appear to be like a piece of string tied to a bridge and waiting for the viewer to pluck them to play a flavour of music.
Just as one enters the main space of the gallery the huge painting, Luz, that faces the viewer invokes a grand cosmic event and easily steals the show. It invokes a brilliant explosion, frozen and pasted on wall; a brilliant yellowish plasma seeping through cracks in an exploding ball of the universe.
The painting Lucent, invoked a microscopic image of an eye. An eye naked and revealing, looked at with a microscopic vision, revealing its prominent bloodish veins and its bluish pupa. An eye, projecting out of its socket. It's interesting to see how depth and texture manifest in these paintings. One painting invoked a brilliant blue sky as seen from lying down and through a gap in an yellowish thatched roof. A greenish painting brings to life the waves trembling off a pool, thick with mossy greenery. A painting invoked the cross section of a trunk of a huge tree with all its Cambrian circles there was another that invoked the vision off a sparkler being circled around.
The canvasses varied in size from around 10 feet to a few inches in size. one of the smaller paintings that was placed over a bigger one offered a newer perspective.
I had chosen to visit the show on an evening when Pravin had planned to stage a performance pooling in music composer Martin Visser and performers Anoushka Kurien, Lakshmi Parthasarathy Athreya and Preethi Athreya to join him on an experimental exploration over two evenings of 'Score painting'.
 |
| pc: Inko Centre fb page |
On the first evening, Martin was playing on a sax from a graphical score sheet. The Music sounded like bursts of chaos, Chaithanya added to the Chaos with her vocal support and Eldho was on the synthesizer adding effects to the music.
The three performers had an almost 10 feet wide canvas and cans of paint to themselves. The canvas had a few tapes stuck on it in a pattern of concentric circular sections. The performers worked on the canvas, splashing paint and working on it with their feet, fingers , scrapes and little broom like brushes. Though it all looked playful, random and chaotic, constrained only by those concentric sections of circular pattern stuck on the canvas, a pattern that was distantly related to the Core was emerging.
The performers did not seem much bothered by the bursts of music from Martin's graphic score. However the music did set a mood for the viewers, adding zing to the chaos.
This performance offered one a glimpse of some of the methods of the artist and his techniques and i feel is very special for the artist opens up aspects of his process to the public.
The show and the performance was a beautiful culmination of the multi factedness of Pravin and his constant experiments with collaborative engagements.
No comments:
Post a Comment