The Hindu : Kerala News : Sharing a bond with nature

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Friday, Apr 25, 2008
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Kerala

Sharing a bond with nature

Photo: SRK

Portraying tribal life: K. Rajikumar with his painting at the Lalithakala Akademi Art Gallery in Kozhikode.

The archetypal fusion of tribal life with nature is handsomely carved in colours by K. Rajikumar in his paintings, which are on display at the Lalithakala Art Gallery in Kozhikode. Compassion for the tribal community and their strife in the changing times are powerfully portrayed. “I do not attempt to idealise or romanticise their life; I feel for them and am one with them when I sketch their life,” says the artist.

Rajikumar is a drawing teacher at Dr. Ambedkar Memorial Government Model Residential Higher Secondary School at Manathavadi in Wayanad. Most of my students are from tribal communities in Wayanad. I live with them and observe closely how passionately they are sensitive about nature,” says the 35-year-old artist, who hails from Nadapuram in Kozhikode.

His knowledge about the details of tribal life and their bond with nature is deep and most of his works feature images from their ethnic lives. Some of his titles like ‘Roots’ and ‘The Myth of Karinthodan’ delve into the mythological premises that are predominant in the collective psyche of tribal people. ‘Scattered Expectations’ portrays his feelings for the distressed farmers in Wayanad. Rajikumar, who uses different mediums, acrylic, oil, water-colour and pencil drawing, does not talk of the complex subtleties of different techniques used in the realm of art and painting. “Any panting, however abstract it may be, will have a dominant mood or tone to it and communicate something to everyone,” says the artist, who has also shown his prowess in terracotta. There also, his affinity with nature and the ethnic life of Wayanad is creatively evident. Some of them, which he has not named yet, are finished with multi-dimensions and meanings to it.

Jabir Mushthari

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