Artist
Riyas Komu's exhibition focuses on the impact of Mahatma Gandhi and
the communal riots that have fractured India every now and then
By
Shevlin Sebastian
Photo by Ratheesh Sundaram
On
Friday, March 12, 1993, thirteen bomb explosions rocked the city of
Mumbai. So it was no surprise that the JJ School of Art was closed
immediately. But, at 4.30 p.m., the suburban trains began functioning
again. So, a young Riyas Komu, and his artist friends, took the train
from Victoria Terminus to Bandra where they stayed in a hostel. But
when the train stopped at Wadala, there was a shout: “There is a
bomb on the train.”
Immediately,
people rushed out of the bogies, including Riyas. But when he stepped
out of the station Riyas suddenly remembered that he had forgotten to
take his rucksack. So he ran back. “The platform was empty,” he
says. “The silence was eerie. I remember how fearful I was. Later,
it turned out to be a false alarm.”
But
those events in Mumbai affected Riyas deeply. “The thoughts and
questions which filled my mind then – religion, displacement of
people, migration, hatred, and war – are still driving my art
today,” he says. “In essence, I began to speak the language of
resistance.”
Two
decades later, this resistance carries on. His recent exhibition, at
Fort Kochi, called 'On International Workers' Day, Gandhi From
Kochi', was inaugurated on May 1, with a seminar on the relevance of
Gandhi. In it, Riyas has placed five paintings of Gandhi, against a
red backdrop, with a lone white star at one side, near the Mahatma's
face.
The
Gandhi that we see is gap-toothed, bare-chested and frail. The
painting is based on a photo taken in 1931, when Gandhi was 62 years
old. He was travelling from India to England on a ship to take part
in the second Round Table Conference.
Interestingly,
above each painting are the words, 'Satya/Perception',
'Ahimsa/Violence', 'Antyodaya/Victim', 'Sarvodaya/Fear' and
'Swaraj/Control'. “I have stated the opposites, because we have let
down the great principles of the Mahatma,” says Riyas. “This is
my reading of the present situation.”
As
for the red background and the star, a smiling Riyas says, “Some
people told me that I was trying to make Gandhi a communist. But it
is nothing of the sort. Red is the colour of resistance movements. It
is also the colour of protest. As for the star, it is a symbol of
hope for the future.”
Besides
these paintings, in a glass enclosure, Riyas has placed litho stones,
thick white slabs, with writings on them, chronicling the several
riots that besmirched India, following the 1947 Partition. He has
called this segment, 'Stoned Goddesses'. “I wanted to understand
the psyche of independent India through important, but cataclysmic
events,” says Riyas. “In the process, I have passed through
several moments of anguish. And this sorrow is at the heart of much
of my work.”
Nevertheless,
the Kerala-born Riyas is an optimistic person. After living for 23
years in Mumbai, Riyas, as one of the founders of the Kochi Muziris
Biennale, has spent the past four years in Fort Kochi. “This town
is a capsule of a larger society,” says Riyas. “It has a
great colonial legacy. There are numerous communities living next to
each other in peace. And there is an amazing 16 languages which are
spoken here. In the end, the people of India will ensure that the
country remains united, despite the upheavals that take place every
now and then.”
(Sunday
Magazine, The New Indian Express, South India and Delhi)
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