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Depicting thoughts

A collection of art that delves deep into various thought processes and customs

MYRIAD THOUGHTS A few of Ramana Reddy's works

Ramana Reddy, an artist of many media, has introduced conflicting thoughts and the evolution of society in his work. At Vision's, Ramana's exhibition of art, many of his paintings are multi-panelled and he uses these panels to portray different thoughts and combine it into one painting. For example, `The Dilemma-2006', another panelled piece shows the hind legs of a bovine animal in the first panel, the outline of a face with pop art red lips in the second and abstract art to depict industrialisation in the third.

The third panel also has a flute painted at the bottom to relate the whole scene to Krishna, who is also the person in panel two. "This painting shows industrialisation. The animal depicts the farmers who are dying." `Metamorphosis' shows the lower half of a woman with a dupatta or chunni being cut away with a large pair of scissors to reveal a mini skirt - the changing times is apparently the theme of this piece of work.

`Enveloping the self' is another relief work, double panelled piece. The first panel had another canvas mounted on it, showing the bust of a woman clad in a leather jacket, while the other shows four silhouettes of a tunic meant for women, all a bit raised as well. Explaining the origins of the painting Ramana says, "One day I sat thinking why do we wear clothes? This is a depiction of that thought."

The pop-up pieces capture your attention. Another one is that of a work with `Transit' stencilled across it. This too has cut-out canvas figures of men walking pasted all over the base canvas. The centre of the gallery is dominated by a large floor chessboard with bronze figurines. All the figurines are the same. There is no pawn, no king and no queen - all to show democracy. "I'm an artist and anything that lets me express my thought is a medium for me," he says in response to a puzzled look.

Ramana lived and worked in Germany for 13 years and it seems like many of his paintings have a European feel to them. "But that's exactly the thing. People there thought it was all about India, while people here think it's about Europe!" The exhibition was inaugurated last weekend and Jaywant Naidu's music added to the mood.

His collection of 16 moving paintings is on display as well. Many of these moving paintings are square canvases, painted on the surface with pop-up pieces that show the hands of a clock. The racetrack with a roadster and a race car as hands, the planetary system with the planets as the hands and a detailed painting of the eye with the iris as one hand are very interesting.

He began these series in 1997-1998 and the collection has evolved over the years. But despite the changing mindset, Ramana's `moving painting' that blatantly made use of the human anatomy made still be a shocker to society.

RENUKA VIJAY KUMAR

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