Outer and inner space

"Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and awe... the starry heavens and the moral law within." Immanuel Kant

MAN in his urge for exploring the unknown - the mystery and the origin of the universe - has set upon waves of space exploration, and space researchers have gone to the extent of planning to "steal" energy from the gravity fields of Earth to accelerate journey into deep space. Today, even as high space technology wipes off a great part of the world's wealth and becomes a commercial competition between the richer and the weaker nations, man stands impoverished on the ground as he has long ceased to be the focus of society's attention.

The 40-odd oils on canvas of Alphonso Arul Doss, which are on show at the Vinyasa Art Gallary, Chennai from February 14 to February 24, 2000, come as a severe indictment of man's violation of the cosmic law and a warning to man that his neglect of the environment and Nature, his prime living source, will be as much his end as it has been his origin. One of India's seniormost contemporary artists, Alphonso has deeply researched into time and space, travelled and talked to space scientists in an effort to understand the international search for extraterrestrial intelligence projects aimed at stumbling on some distant civilisations, and believes that we would rather save our own planet than voyage towards unknown moons and dead stars. He says: "Scientists must realise that for all the advancement we have achieved, we cannot recreate Nature, not even a blade of grass as it grows on earth. And if this realisation comes to us, we can do a lot for the development of man."

The central theme of his painting is the human being - the male and the female - who are the fundamental creations of Nature. This is the mechanism that works behind all developments. The ancient shastras named the purusha or the male as the spirit of Nature, and prakriti, the female, as the matter - and both put together form the existence of the human being. "Even after 5,000 years of existence," regrets Alphonso, "man has failed to view Nature in its proper perspective. He does not need the aid of technology to enjoy what already exists on earth - grains for his food, water to quench his thirst and sunlight to brighten his life. Did not Jesus say: 'Look at the birds in the air, they do not work and yet Nature feeds them'?"

The art of Alphonso has a lot to do with his childhood, and he recognises it saying: "Primarily, what we carry around with us is a memory of our childhood when each day held the magic of discovering the world." Born in October 1939 to a Christian family in Bangalore, he showed a strong streak of religion from his young days and was attracted to the paintings of Durer depicting Christian themes. This was life placid and unsinned till a small incident blew up the mosaic walls of the child's spiritual world. During a hunting expedition, he saw a plumed bird being shot down and by the time he had taken it in hand it was dead. "With the death of the bird, something went out of me, I was never the same again. I knew the difference between life and death and also knew that every creation in Nature was born free and to interfere with its freedom would amount to interfering with the spirit of Nature."

In the present exhibition the artists's concern is the human form which has attracted generations of artists from the pre-historic times to the modern era - its hidden beauty and its unexplored inner space. The human body is like a treasure chest (and so the lock and key appears again and again as a symbol in his paintings) which has to be unlocked to understand its inner mechanism not only in terms of the form and its content but also the functioning of the mind.

The artist's perceptive mechanism leads him to the thinking that we live in the twilight zone of the world - the interface of life and death. Here two concepts that traditionally rank as most fundamental - energy and matter - keep bumping into a third: the mind. The exact relationship among the three is a question without a clear answer and basic enough to have inspired a variety of opinions. Mind, some scientists will tell you, is just one of many forms of energy and matter; it is embodied in things like a brain's neural firings. Others talk in grander terms that mind deserves full equality with energy and matter, that it should join them in some sort of scientific trinity.

For an artist like Alphonso, the point of discovery does not simply reinforce the search for knowledge - it inspires further research. Indeed, it directs research. The unifying principle, upon its apprehension, can elicit such devotion that thereafter the artist looks everywhere for manifestations of it. He gets excited at looking at his art in a new way, and stays excited. He uses an extraordinary range of symbols to build up the story of man - the sun, moon and the stars - fish, plants and animals - fire, water and rain - and they flow seamlessly into his paintings - do not come in chunks, but are perfectly smooth. And then you suddenly come upon a cube-like structure in an oblong canvas, like a transparent cage through which a bird is flying out at great speed, and the artist would explain it "as the passage of time - the lifespan of man - for life is a passing thing. As long as the source of energy is there, life will be there, and once the transmigration of energy is complete, life will snuff out". Alphonso Arul Doss is a world-acclaimed artist who has been honoured with a cultural doctorate by the World University, U.S.. He has held 14 one-man shows in India, 11 prestigious shows abroad, awarded on countless occasions, and his works are in private and public collections in countries ranging from India to Croatia. He is the only artist in India who uses the gemstone effect on the figures in his work and this technique he learnt after minutely studying the graded passage of light through a diamond. He leaves calculated white space on the pristine canvas which gives an original touch to his work and he says: "Before laying my brush on the canvas, I already know how the painting is going to take shape. My subject is deep, so is my thinking" and the thoughts of a man whose hopeful, expansive vision of what it means to be "human" has much to offer us.

ANJALI SIRCAR

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