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Celebrating visual forms
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Venkat Bothsa fuses two forms of art to come up with an arresting body of work
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Realistic Venkat Bothsa’s fibreglass sculptures
It is an inherent human trait to construct stories on the scaffolding of lived experiences.
These stories can be verbal or visual. And, Venkat Bothsa, a Visakhapatnam-based artist has evolved his individual methodology of narration in a contemporary mileau.
He narrates dramatic stories on human and animal bodies or faces, birds or flora. His approach in transforming bodies into living canvases that will live to convey tales of our globalised realities is unique.
Arduous process
Venkat’s makes three-dimensional human figures, trees, fruits, flowers or birds in clay and casts them into fibre glass.
Then, he creates independent collages with cuttings from magazines and converts them into slides. An overhead projector beams the collage slides onto the sculptures, and Venkat paints the reflection with enamel colours and finishes it with a coating of melamine.
This time consuming technical process allows Venkat to mark his works with a signature style, amalgamating two forms of visual art — sculpture and painting.
His works are marked by a sensuous and kaleidoscopic play of colours and a mélange of forms. The sensuality of his sculptures is so magnetic that it invites a close scrutiny of the ‘enigmatic’ stories Venkat has imaginatively played out. They include bright, lush vegetation, flowers and fruits, landscapes and expanses of the sky, as well as city high-rises, cinematic stills and motorbikes, besides Western and far-Eastern scenes.
Venkat, in his illuminated or painted sculptures, conveys varied concerns such as the deteriorating ecological balance, global warming, engendered species, populous metros and the materialistic culture. As a sensitive human being and artist, he makes bodies sites of conflict. And, the concerns translate as metaphors for tensions, anxieties and conflicts within society.
A realistic style forms the basis of his visual language. Realism is a potent tool to explicitly convey a message, since it enables the viewer to connect easily with the artist’s intentions. The clever manipulation of the visual language imparts to Venkat’s works a mass appeal, which, juxtaposed with his pop colours and kitsch images, brings his works within the post-modern genre. As a post-modernist, he does not attempt to parody or create an irony of his experiences, but addresses issues in a simple manner. His exhibition, titled ‘Enigma’, boasts meticulous attention to details, dexterity in his modelling of forms and delicacy in the tonal contrasts, particularly in the complexions and gestures and poses.
Venkat’s works entice the viewer to look on. The exhibition is on at Gallery Sumukha until August 18.
ASHRAFI S. BHAGAT
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