Embracing struggles of life

Life revolves around livelihood when an individual is pushed towards the city life. Living a decent life gets difficult when one’s ability is measured with the amount of money posessed. Kalabhakesari, an artist from Kerala is going to present a solo show of paintings titled Urban Ruins which reflects upon the above theme in the national Capital.

Curated by Uma Nair, the show is about struggle, about the cages we are put into because society slots us and gives us a place according to the riches we have. The exhibition will be showcased in Lalit Kala Akademi, Copernicus Marg.

The artist who is now based in Delhi says, “When I think of struggle, I think of so many things that have grown around me and filled my livelihood – I feel as if I’m free but I am living in chains. I feel today is not a time for monuments, it is a time for ruins.” Kesari’s words give us a flashback of newspapers across the world splashed with images of social collapse, disaster and grief.

“When Kesari brought home his canvases, his imagery transfixed me because in his subjects I could feel a rare but deepened sense of mournful beauty that actually filled me with a sad but lurid fascination,” says curator and critic Uma Nair. 

“My work is an ironic commentary about urban life and society which is the source of my inspiration,” says Kesari, “My work addresses issues related to dislocation with rapidly changing consumer cultures, so I use certain symbols to depict the same. For instance, the network tower is a symbol of technology and connectivity. This is a global reality. But within this reality, the value of human existence has become a microcosm,” he adds.

Between the ecological destruction, natural disasters and the social unrest around the world, the image of the ruin has come to define our historical juncture. Everywhere the social fabric of man is in a state of rupture and we are victims of races within races.

Today, in  this young artist’s hands, the 15 canvases morph into the image of a fragmented, mournful past that comes back to caution his present and foreshadow his future. His anxiety and his angst unveil a moody melancholia writ large in the way he expresses his responses to urban practices.