ART
Exploration of life
TANYA ABRAHAM
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Santiniketan breathed life into master sculptor K.S. Radhakrishnan’s works and left a lasting influence on him.
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Today I work with bronze. Working with it has a certain mystery: where we are unaware of the outcome.
Quest for art: K.S. Radhakrishnan.
I met K.S. Radhakrishnan on a cloudy morning, sitting outside the red-cemented verandah of old Harbour, an ancient home now a boutique hotel. Our conversation opened over a hot cup of tea on the serenity and placidity that only Kerala nourishes.
He began the story of a long and exciting journey that he once took, boarding a train from the little town of Changanacherry in Kerala to West Bengal, early in 1974. Santiniketan was his destination, as he went in search of the values and traditions that had struck him so intensely: of a life of exploration in art.
Multitude of encounters
It was here that I realised that, to Radhakrishnan, his journey has been a medley of juxtaposition of beliefs that emerged from a multitude of encounters; some happy, others challenging. “But Santiniketan was much more than I would ever have dreamt of. There were no beginnings and no end. Just miles of limitlessness. Of free space and free thought. Where the campus extended to a tribal village and a flock of migratory birds flew in, as if for a class. It was that which moved the inner being to bask in the creativity in paint or ink, even clay.”
He pauses. And excitedly reminisces of his instant attraction towards sculpting and “the play of fingers that creates an image in mind; the pliability of the material in use: all of which finally move to portray my perception of a subject.” He speaks of the immense influence of his masters, Ramkinkar Baij and Sarbari Roy Choudari at Santiniketan, who presented him with varying sculptural sensibilities, whose works differed in great magnitude but whose energies came together to evoke a drive in him.
The fulcrum of his belief remains those learnt at Santiniketan, the words of Tagore that echoed all around and Gandhian philosophy that moulded his approach and breathed life into his sculptures. It permitted him to draw hidden details that brought sensuality into his works. It also speaks of his gradual movement from clay to concrete and finally to bronze. “Today I work with bronze. Working with it has a certain mystery: the mystery of life itself, where we are unaware of the outcome.”
He explains that the shape and formation of molten metal within a wax mould is, in the end, subject to the cosmic forces in action, “the forces of nature over which we have no hold, that which ultimately creates the intricate details of my work.” It is this belief in the energies of the universe that has, to a large extent, moulded the creation of his sculptures.
Radhakrishnan looks at me intently as if to ask whether I comprehend his convictions. Then gently brings forth a recent book that carefully traced the steps of the artist. The pages are interspersed with images of his work in black and white and colour, as he stoops to explain. He begins with “The Ramp” that portrays a multitude of figures in collective rhythm, male and female, in movements of their own: but all striving to reach the crust of perfection.
It is obvious Radhakrishnan delineates his understanding of one from the other. That perfection arises from within; that there exists no god-man but only a human, sculpting a giant model alongside the miniature figures as if having attained nirvana, looming large and bursting with an unerring dignity of calm.
Meaning of life
And so also Musui and Maiya, the male and female figures he uses to explain. Each of them adopts various roles, they become one with little or no distinction between each other. Like his “Musui has Maiya and Maiya has Musui”, which encapsulates two figures both holding each other’s detached heads as if possessing each other. This time it is I who look at him intently. It is as if he has understood and attained the meaning of life.
The rain clouds are hovering above us. We watch the dragonflies hover over the green water of a lily pond. I try to fathom the journey Radhakrishnan began three decades ago. And what has become of his quest for art? He quickly answers. “The periphery changes, but it is the movement that evokes.” In many ways his discovery has just begun…
K.S. Radhakrishnan now resides in New Delhi and has exhibited his work the world over. He is currently working on 50 feet sculptures of Musui and Maiya cart-wheeling.
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