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Photo S. Mahinsha

Environmentalist David Arribas Cubero makes pieces of art out of leftover material

“Actually Fine Arts is a completely new subject to me as I am an engineering major. But my classmates are extremely helpful and have helped me pick up the subject. Although I am in the sculpture department of the college, I’m more into making collages, mostly out of pieces of cloth.”

In fact David will be conducting an exhibition of collages at the Lalithakala Akademi in January. “But it will not be my works on display,” says David with a grin. An active social worker, David conducts art workshops for children with special needs. “It will be a collage of works by these children. I help at Marion Play School, which is a school for the mentally challenged, the school for the hearing impaired and the Government Children’s Home, Poojappura.”

Here, David teaches art. “Actually I let them do their own stuff. I show them how to handle the brushes, paints and the other mediums we use. Their works are products of their imagination. For instance some of the kids at the Marion School cannot handle the brush well, so it’s mostly abstract work, which is fine by me, as I’m an advocate of abstract work. I’m hoping to start a workshop at the school for the visually challenged. Here, I’m hoping to teach them to make 3D images.”

Environmentally conscious, David also encourages his students to use recycled products. “You can make so many beautiful works using leftovers of cloth, discarded newspaper, egg shells, coconut husks…You just need a bit of imagination” says this man who has made curtains out of leftover pieces of cloth.

“I have a couple of friends who are tailors. They give me left over materials from salwar-kameez’s, blouses, frocks… The Indian fabric is beautiful-it is rich, colourful and the motifs are unique.”

Having lived in the city for the last two years, David says he has managed to pick up a bit of Malayalam.

“But that does not mean I speak fluently.” He says he loves the city, because it is quiet. “Thiruvananthapuram is not exactly what you would call a happening city, yet there are just enough cultural events to make it not a boring one.”

A movie buff, he makes it a point to attend all the film festivals in the city.

“Filca, IFFK… I enjoy Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s works. I attend the Soorya dance festivals also. Although I’m not well versed in the dance forms, three years of attending the festival has given me the knowledge to differentiate a good and an okay performance, I think.”

Staying at Jawahar Nagar, David says he tries as far as possible to do his own cooking. “Mostly Spanish and Turkey cuisine. I enjoy preparing Spanish Omelette, Gazpacho (cold soup), hummus, taboule (a kind of broken wheat bread)… I leave the Indian cuisine to the restaurants here as they do a much better job than I. But when in Spain, I cook Indian food,” says the man who claims to know how to prepare thorans, kadala curry, puttu and iddiyappam.

“I love South Indian food and I like it spicy. But I do not enjoy too much coconut in my food though.”

With his term at the college coming to an end soon, David says that it is with a heavy heart that he is leaving the State. “It’s not like that I have to go. It’s just that as an artist, you need to constantly explore and find new muses. Kerala will always be in my heart and I will definitely come back, if not for new projects, than to visit my friends who I have made here during my stay.”

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