The Magic Of Words

By K. Surekha, *A narrator of visual poems* - Express Buzz - Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Kochi: Indian art is happening, said Ghulam Mohammed Sheikh, artist, art historian and poet, who received the Raja Ravi Varma Puraskaram for 2008 instituted by the Kerala Lalitha Kala Akademi recently.

From ripples it’s set to create waves in the global arena. Markets brought about a change in art over the last 16 years. “I think we should look at its positive aspects.

Today young artists can support themselves through art unlike our days when we had to do other jobs even to source our art. Luckily for me I taught art at MS University, my alma mater. The media, although it highlights art’s commercial aspects, has done a lot to promoete it. It’s a pity that newspapers that write art reviews no longer need them”, he said.

“In our days art camps brought artists together but nowadays it’s the galleries, curators and collectors that play a major role. Despite the different generations and different levels of art, we are one big family,” said Sheikh. “Artists are making new statements, trying to express themselves in new ways and in different media.”

For Sheikh, art is not merely for art’s sake. Along with aesthetics he has raked up many social issues as he tries and hopes for a positive transformation in society. The past fills his present just as he blends the subjective with the objective.

Myths and legends of diverse cultures find expression in his work which encompasses the universality of human feelings and basic nature of life despite the superficial changes seen in the climate and culture in each area. His large canvases encompass the whole world, cutting across political, religious and cultural barriers. Narrative with symbolic motifs, the colourful forms and figures take on allegorical tones in many a frame.

Ghettoisation and subaltern images punctuate his narrative pieces. They haunt you while stirring your thoughts and senses. Sheikh has immortalised his native town Surendranagar and his work place Baroda in his works.

Past is not nostalgia but linked with the present. Of epic dimensions, his works have many episodes related through multiple images in a simple style, concealing the complexities of life that people hate to confront and pleasant aspects that people love. His compositions augment the fact that all that’s happening in the world has its precedence in different epics, and their symbolism finds a way into his works - Mughal, Rajput art, Renaissance elements and Sufism are unique in his hands as he creates magic with them exploiting spaces in ways unimaginable.

Open to new methods in art Sheikh has made use of digital spaces in his work.

His latest works are a series of Kaavads (portable shrines), a tradition followed in Rajasthan. Sheikh’s Kaavads are expressions of his religion - the installations of temple-like structures are huge with four openings and paintings done on all four sides and the ceiling. Kaavads have themes like journey, forced journeys and the demolition of the Babri masjid (with images of Ram hunting the deer Maricha).

His Kaavads on musing and miscellany deal with many aspects of poetry and alphabet, the charm and magic of words. Another one is dedicated to Bhupen Khakhar. The one on migration is presently being shown in Vienna. This huge work is part of a travelling exhibition. One can walk into it and feel the wonder.

His other work is ‘Mappa Mandi’ (Beyond Borders) that are mappings of his mind - statements on religion, politics, spirituality and individual spaces.

Sheikh has moved with the times in his five-decade-old career.

Sheikh’s visual presentation of a magazine during his school days caught the attention of an artist in Baroda who showed him the way to MS University and there was no turning back. At the university Sheikh was instrumental in Baroda’s evolution as a landmark in contemporary art. He went around the world, enriching his vision and expanding his oeuvre.

Poetry comes naturally to him and some of his paintings are visual poems. Recipient of many awards, Sheikh is exploring the mysteries within him, linking the space within and outside through poetry and art.

Sheikh is also into prose, a kind of work that transcends genres, a style in which he finds new paths like he always does.

[Picture: Speaking Tree. Photo from http://www.artnet.com/artist/713009/gulam-mohammed-sheikh.html]