Tom Vattakuzhy’s surreal signature at KMB

Indian contemporary master Tom Vattakuzhy’s suite of works at Kochi Muziris Biennale consisted of a surreal creation of works created for short stories .Amongst all the works what stood out was his prowess as well as his passion for creating imagery that reflected ingenious techniques of compositional cohesion and realms of virtual vitality.

Leninum Larshakanum 

Vattakuzhy has conceived many paintings for  stories and Leninum Larshakanum 2016 reflects  his vision of an abstractionist landscape  as a complex, yet enigmatic, and panoramic nocturnal landscape that is teeming with dark and light shadows including a newly born banana leaf that stands in lone lusciousness.

The circular orb

The next landscape of form and fervour is the one he created for an annual celebration in 2015. This masterpiece has a luminescent solar orb of  flame orange  set against a night sky that makes us think of the beauty of night time and grey atmospherics .Tom’s capacious powers of perfection create architectural vignettes of the houses that line the landscape to unveil the world beyond as well as the little windows within that hold human stories my myriad moorings.

Figurative fervour 

From landscapes to images of figurative fervour Tom’s repertoire of works were a delight to savour.From the abject desolation of poor little boys to a lone lass standing against a window this image holds its own solitary beauty.

Padhippinum arivinum oru masika conceived within the idiom of historical representation, was produced to mark the 125th anniversary of literacy publications in Kerala.

Tom says the contrast of the people to the destitute children standing naked outlines the deprivation and the paradoxes of everyday living.Tom says: “ It engages with a socio-historical context in which caste hierarchies and the practice of untouchability were deeply embedded within everyday life. In response to such conditions, Bhashaposhini Sabhas were convened across various regions with the aim of fostering literacy and intellectual engagement among socially marginalized and underprivileged children.These gatherings functioned as platforms for educational outreach, incorporating competitions and the distribution of awards as means of encouragement.

A notable historical account recalls an instance in which a king, attending one such gatherings as the guest of honour, transgressed prevailing social boundaries by inviting children deemed “untouchable” to approach him, touching them in a gesture of blessing and presenting them with gifts.The present work renders this moment as a visual narrative, situating it within a broader discourse on social reform and cultural history.In recent years, an image of this painting has been adopted as the title image in the exhibition spaces of literature festivals organized across Kerala.”

Oru brush Chitra varakunnu

The little girl at the window is Tom’s attempt to penetrate the ever smaller building blocks of our material reality. The beauty of simplicity makes us think of an integral importance of consciousness.The previously established assumption that “consciousness arises from matter” is thus inverted to a new paradigm where consciousness, rather than matter, is the basis of everything.

This image also tells us that reality  emanates out of an ever expanding creativity, confined by neither time nor space, as it explores its own potential through personal points of consciousness that pursue individual trajectories contributing to the ever evolving richness of what there is.

Karpooramanam 2016

One of the finest images was Karpooramanam, ( fragrance of camphor) written by the author  T. Sreevalsan.

Tom says : “ This painting, conceived within the idiom of historical representation. It engages with a socio-historical context in which caste hierarchies and the practice of untouchability were deeply embedded within everyday life. In response to such conditions,  Sabhas were convened across various regions with the aim of fostering literacy and intellectual engagement among socially marginalized and underprivileged children.”Perhaps more than anything else it is the image with its elegiac notes of death and despair and the two women with long hair that sit with flowers in their lustrous hair that catches our attention in the tableau of the family person who has just passed on.Tom’s understanding of the absence of life and the figures of familial connectivity all come together in this apt epitaph.

In all his paintings the  titles are endearing as well as high on intellectual ardour. Edappally ezhuthiya Ramanan written by writer Suresh Madhav according to Tom is a  painting that  unfolds as a passage from the tender dreamscape of imagined love into the dark, lingering shadows of its tragic end. “ At its core stands a tragic figure—a romantic lover who inhabits his love through quiet self-affliction.

His inner turbulence, composed of silences and unspoken longings, slowly surfaces as image and form,” says he.Tom goes onto describe his love for literature.

“ For me, literature is the first spark—a point of ignition. To translate the emotional undercurrents and subtle resonances of a story into a visual language is both a demanding and deeply exhilarating act. In that process, painting becomes not merely an act of depiction, but one of transformation.

Yet, these works are not intended to remain as visual echoes of narratives. Each painting seeks its own autonomy—born of literature, but striving to move beyond it, into a realm where it exists as an independent and self-contained experience.”

Images : Tom Vattakuzhy Studio

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