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`Calculated, edited expressions'
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K.P.Soman is a sculptor who turned to painting, installation and art activism as a reaction to new trends in art. He shares his views with PREMA MANMADHAN at the Orthic Creative Centre where his show is on
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PHOTO: H. VIBHU
PRODUCT LAUNCH? K P..Soman says art has become the preserve of collectors and artists
He gives his art all his time. But not all of it is to make money. This sets veteran sculptor-painter-activist artist K.P. Soman apart from many of his ilk. At a time when even partially established artists are paid by square inches of their works, his works on display at Orthic Creative Centre are very small (20cm x30cm and 18cm x 18cm).
Priced at a very affordable Rs. 5,000-Rs 15,000, Soman says he is looking for viewers mainly, more than buyers, for a work of art has become just a product in today's art world. There are artists, those investing in art and the public.
"The role of the public is diminishing," says the artist who says art is seen now not as an enjoyment but merely as an investment.
The aesthetics of art have undergone a change and so has the perception of artists. "Sometimes I wonder, how can a work of art be priced at this exorbitant amount? What is the role of art?" he asks. "It is the collectors who triumph, the artists keep changing. When an artist's works are overpriced and the collectors drop him/her after some time, where will he/she go from there? The art world has been reduced to a collectors' world, an industry. There's no place for the people here. "The social history of the art market is very interesting," Soman points out, adding that the media has an equally big role in it.
Sculptures as craft
Once, his sculptures were on show, and he deliberately called it craft, not art. "Nobody thought it was worth anything much, only because I called it craft, not art," he says, exposing the hypocrisy in the field and the brahminical status of art as opposed to craft. The fact is that works of art are seen as products.
To strike home this point, he has called his show at the Orthic Creative Centre here, `Inside Investments'. Above that is written, `Launching sample products' in the invitation. Soman's works on display here, 49 of them, have muted colours (dry pastels and metallic colours). Faces dominate but they move beyond just sad outlines of faces. No bright colours for Soman, deduce what you will! The red you see once in a while is not boisterous.
All have some form of writing on them; some more writing than figures and in others, words deliberately spelt wrong, perhaps to be in sync with the masses. The metallic colours, forms and jottings are an extension of his outlook on life and he communicates charged views, rather than plain emotions. Sometimes there is a poem in it. His views may be subjective but they concern a larger canvas, are not limited to the self. He voices that angst in metallic colours and forms. His art, in his words, are always a `calculated, edited expression'. "You may look for explanations in it. Each one may find a different meaning in it. That is perhaps why Buddhadeb Das Gupta called his works `intellectual violence', for they baffle and make you think in different directions.
His show will be on till January 22.
Marginalised society
He is actively involved in working with the marginalised sections of society for their rights, through art. Ecology is close to Soman's heart as also the problems of displaced people. Water and its importance in the politics of tomorrow is part of his concerns. His installations have taken those concerns to the common people. The aesthetics of adulteration was one installation, where he lined up all the material used in adulterating foodstuff, like small stones, sawdust etc! In another installation, he kept pairs of slippers and the title said it all: Touch, kiss and lick, if not get a kick.
Once he did a terracotta installation on a one-acre island, taking two years to do it. His ambitious venture at Pathanamthitta, sculptures of Kadammanitta's poetic characters, is another.
Soman is a visiting faculty at the Baroda art school but `has a place in Delhi' too. "I don't live in one place," says the artist who is `childless by choice'. He took his post graduation degree in Zoology from S.D. College, Alappuzha and then proceeded to study art in Baroda. "That is why I have this research bug in me," he explains.
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