A Language of One’s Own


Works of Gipin Varghese at Delhi’s Vadehra Contemporary Show an Artist Pursuing a Visual Language to Express Complex Reality

Kerala, land of Kathakali and Mohiniyattam; Kerala, seat of contemporary Indian art’s biggest showcase, the Kochi Muziris Biennale; God’s own country and Guruvayoor pilgrims on one side, and on the other, the capital of Indian communism, the biggest lobby of God-critics.

To be born into a reality with so many layers and complexities can also make an artist push the boundaries of language and expression, beyond its usual form. And the work of Kerala-based Gipin Varghese is a constant pursuit towards such a visual form and language. Varghese, whose show, ‘Commonly Caught Species’, recently concluded at Vadehra Contemporary in New Delhi, uses the language of folk art – only to subvert its idyllic narrative, and make comments on contemporary society.

“I use something that can be best described as urban man’s mimicry of folk, folk is formed by ages, passed on through generations. My use for it is to do with finding something that fits me for expressing myself. I was attracted towards folk language…something spontaneous and original, almost like writing with one’s hand.”

Spontaneity aside, Varghese also speaks of the lack of hierarchy, and universality that marks out the folk form from contemporary “man-centric” mediums, a shift from the egotistical artist persona, to a more egalitarian approach.

While the language, and approach is the gentle, almost spiritual one, it meets the conflicts of a contemporary artist, caught up with present-day reality. “I use subjects a folk artist normally wouldn’t use,” he says. There are harsh and disturbing realities to address, he says, and all of them need engagement.

Art, according to Varghese has to be socially relevant and politically correct at the same time, not cross the boundary and turn into a sermon or a political slogan, but a mixture of all there is in the universe. “There must be democracy in representation – human, birds, insects,” he says.

One of Gipin Varghese’s paintings (also titled Commonly Caught Species, an acrylic on paper), from a distance, looks like a piece of Madhubani art: of nature, and kings and valour. A landscape painting in natural colours, it has trees almost creating a poetic movement in their formation. Only, far from being a paean to such an idyllic reality, it is a comment on the unlimited freedom enjoyed (and abused) by the Indian military in many states. A close viewing of the work reveals tiny figures walking through the forest with guns, and some figures, clearly felled by the guns. An idyllic picture from a distance turns into a nightmare at close-up. It is one of the artist’s favourite works, also because it represents his practice very closely. “It has got all the features of a landscape painting, and yet, there is a play because underneath it all, a sadness is hidden,” he says.

Varghese’s primary concern is power, and its iniquitous distribution which creates unhealthy, often damaging relationships in society. Apart from the issue of human rights violations using the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) in Manipur and Jammu and Kashmir, other issues that recurrently come in his work include the Indian government’s support of the poisonous pesticide Endosulphan, owing to pressure from its manufacturers, farmer suicides in Andhra Pradesh, etc. Apart from addressing human society’s ravages upon each other, Varghese also looks at the unhealthy power dynamics of humankind and human institutions vis-à-vis the plant and animal world, and how they are created and raised.

The search for a language started when Varghese was a researcher in church art and murals. “I found Madhubani artists doing Christian subjects – that was very strange, and the mood of the picture was different – so I thought I could do something like that, and evoke a sad mood through Madhubani,” he says.

Kerala is an abiding source of influence and ideas for the artist. “It is politically vigilant, more secular, while at the same time with the influences of Sree Narayana Guru. These are the base of every Keralite,” he says. The quest for language becomes harder given that Varghese is still hard -put to truly represent his own land, and immediate reality as openly as he would want to. “I am not able to represent my own land in my work. I am quite scared to do so. May be in the future, sitting away from it, or in a situation when I am more stable and courageous to say whatever I feel,” he says.