Dr Srajana Kaikini, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at SIAS, Krea University has curated Shimmering Whispers from a Kanakambaram Summer – A tribute to time and space, 2018–2023, a debut show by Shivapriya, a self taught visual artist mentored by artist Ravi Kumar Kashi, residing in Chennai.
The Inauguration, followed by a conversation between the artist and the curator, took place on February 3, 2024, at Alliance Française of Madras. The art exhibition is open from February 3–7, 2024.
“Shivapriya’s works made assiduously over the past five years from 2018 to 2023, lyrically entwine mindscape and landscape through the magnanimity of content and fragility of form. A manner of flow can be seen in these works. The refusal to indulge in the artifice or techniques of an academic painter and an almost childlike yet grandmotherly vision percolating her mindscapes – taking the form of alter-egos, mythical characters, allegorical shadows or just exuberant and uncontrollable beings. The works range from almost photographic to almost abstract, resisting complete formations, many perhaps trying to catch in-betweens caught in the state of becoming or just taking shape. These stories and moments are as if tamed and set free by the most agile and tenacious of mediums in art history – the watercolour. Watercolours take on a very unusual form in Shivapriya’s works – offering a different kind of strength promised by paper as opposed to canvas. Through all these works, a witness figure may be seen – a subject that looks on, alongside the spectators yet appearing twice removed; with us but not quite, within the painting but not quite. What follows these witnesses? Glimmering ruptures that disrupt and shine forth.”
Excerpt from the text by Srajana Kaikini
Click here for more information about the show.
