Art and craft balanced

C N Karunakaran, now exhibiting in the Capital's Art Konsult gallery in Hauz Khas Village, is a senior artist who seems to have evolved a ...

C N Karunakaran, now exhibiting in the Capital’s Art Konsult gallery in Hauz Khas Village, is a senior artist who seems to have evolved a fine balance between the decorative art of South East Asia and the temple sculptures of tribal India. This should not surprise us as the artist was born in the temple town of Guruvayoor which was recently in the news when it was given a ritual purification after the marriage of the son of a former Congress minister was celebrated there because his wife is a Christian.

Temple art reflects in more ways than one the frustration of belonging to an amalgam of fertility cults transformed into epic narratives on the one hand and contemplative exercises on the other. As a result the celebration of the body shares a visual space with self-conscious ethical values, while found objects serve as popular talismans covering up for esoteric cults. In such an environment neither art nor technique develop with confidence, while the decorative creeps in and takes over from the expressive.

This is true for much of the art from Southern India. Design is something that the artists who emerge in this environment cannot let go of. So they seek the best co-existence they can develop with it.

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Some, like A Ramachandran, have adopted a classical mode evolved from the murals of Kerala’s palaces and temples. Others, like Haridasan, have taken to ritual symbolism. Both of them have the disadvantage of an aesthetic appreciation based on reverence that has nothing to do with the quality of the visual object as such. From this angle, Karunakaran has made a much happier choice.

He has chosen to highlight traditional folk expression in his works, while using the decorative elements to bind the two dimensional space of his works. But the conventionality of the symbols does not allow for the sense of the unexpected that one has when confronted with an abstract expressionism. Seeing these works, obviously by a gifted artist, one cannot help but feel how much better we would be if we respect ourselves more and the conventions and cultures that weigh us down, less. But a close look at his works shows us that is precisely what is happening to this artist. So let’s wait and watch.