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With Munnar as the muse

It’s Munnar again, as Prema Manmadhan discovers much to her delight at the Durbar Hall Art Centre. This time on canvas as paintings and as sculpture by both architects and painters

architects for art’s sake: The show at Durbar Hall Art Centre.

There goes Munnar again. It’s beauty matches its propensity for news. Take a round of the Durbar Hall Art Centre where 22 works are on show and feel the spirit of Munnar pervade the air. For the 22 works were done by architects and artists at a camp in Munnar Woods in April this year. Today, it is rubble. The camp was got up by The Institute of Indian Interior Designers and Designer Publications Kerala.

M. V. Devan topped the list, with C.S. Jayaram, L. Gopakumar, K. C. Chitrabhanu, mural artist Vinod and P.V. Nandan among the group. The canvases are all acrylics. When you see 21 different styles, it is truly a feast for there is something to please every viewer. Forget the medium, forget the artist, just look at the myriad ways in which expressions have been translated onto the canvas and commune with the work and the artist, looking for things you can identify with, their outlook, their language and their mood.

Architects are really artists and sculptors with a multidimensional view. Their art, when transformed into solid structures, gives them a satisfaction much like that of a painter, when his canvas is inhabited by another world. So the interaction and meeting of minds of architects and artists at the camp recreated totally different aspects of art: Some fresh and a handful jaded by too much contact with brick and mortar!

‘Gia’ is Gopakumar’s way of relaxation with a brush. ‘Misty Munnar’ by Meera Asok and ‘Munnar Woods’, by Roshan Nageena are views from the hotel. There is a swing in the painting which was Roshan’s favourite perch in the evenings during the three days the group was there.

M.V. Devan at work at the camp in Munnar

The artists all get nostalgic when you bring up the subject of why Munnar is in the news. “As soon as I reached there, I asked who the architect of the building was, not who the owner is,” says Devan. “It was beautiful, simple and jelled with the landscape,” Devan, who has designed 350 buildings, reminisced. Devan’s work, ‘Space, Time, Continuum-8,’ celebrates Mother Nature. She can be deciphered amidst the layers of history in a harmonious blend of pastel shades. It has been a couple of years since Devan exhibited any of his works. This one costs Rs 1 lakh. Brown dominates P. V. Nandan’s well executed ‘Saranam’. The dexterous craft in the painting is appealing. The golden hued ‘Misty Munnar’ of Meera Asok is very architecturesque.

Sidharthan’s untitled work reflects the moods of the night, in sombre greys, black and deep green. Beside that, cheerful shoots of bamboo against a backdrop of earthy brown (ruins?) and an expanse of layered blue brings out hope and projects a positive outlook in Shaju Nellai’s ‘Renewal of History’.

K.C. Chitrabhanu’s deceptively simple and childlike style in ‘Munnar by Night’ has a depth which the viewer cannot miss. C. S. Jayaraman’s ‘Those who lost the land’ exudes a Rajasthani exuberance. Two of his works are on show. (Price Rs 80,000).

Rahin Pavithran’s cement and steel sculpture, (the only sculpture) ‘Fly to Victory’ shows the mythological Jadayu.

Vinod, a mural artist, who researches on tantric art, has put up one work. He is currently involved in a Herculean task of recreating the lost murals at the Madurai Meenakshi temple. He and his team have been at it for the last decade.

Young, fresh and full of ideas, the works of 20-something architects Vivek P. P., Brijesh Shaijal and Nishan M. M. all first-time exhibits, scream out that Gen Next is here, with something new. Nishan’s ‘She’ seems poised to jump out of the frame. She is vivacious and her ‘attitude’ is there for all to see, with straightened hair and mod clothes. The work is a bold statement in vibrant colours. Brijesh did his ‘The Play’, using no brushes. “The locale inspired me to use only leaves.” Vivek also took inspiration from his surroundings to use the different greens and browns he saw outside to create ‘The moods of Munnar’.

A painting that shows bamboos and thatched straw huts, in yellows and browns is titled ‘Motorcycle’. Why? “Because everything comes in a cycle – fashions, styles,” says the artist, Pratheesh. The unsaid factor is that Pratheesh’s Bullet motorcycle fascinates him to an unfathomable degree. In fact he went to Munnar for the camp on his Bullet. “I go everywhere on it, even outside the State. This December, I’m going to the Himalayas on my Bullet,” says the bachelor.

The group at the camp

Here, at Durbar Hall Art Gallery, architects and artists definitely meet and meet they must if they need to keep up the dialogue between art and commerce.

Roy Antony, Prashant P George, Lijo Jose, Vipin NC, P R Sathish are the others on show. It is on till July 29.

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