Date:20/03/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/03/20/stories/2006032002460200.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

Exploring the meaning of relationships

"Working with the land will make us realise that for a small component to survive, you require a large system. It helps you perceive these things. It broadens your understanding. This has come into my art as well," artist C.F. John tells Rasheed Kappan

Earthy, real, glued to the land, John's works have always probed the human body's synergetic relationship with ground zero.

His works are posed as an extension of earth itself, more than a reflection of nature. Rooted to the earth, the works symbolise a meaning deeper than the mundane, cosmetic art forms. His is an art that has an earth-centred spirituality independent of religious basis.

Relating his interest in "farming" to his beliefs, his earthy art and his contemporary views on human-land relationships, he says, "Before I quit Visthar (the non-governmental organisation where he spent 15 years working on various projects), I spent over a year on farming. The most important thing was to rejuvenate the soil."

On a six-acre plot on the Visthar premises, John planted 300 saplings of various species. Tending them, watching them take on life of their own, spreading into the earth to connect with it for life, John explored the meaning of relationships. John found farming the right mode to relate the body directly to the earth, the land. "When you sow a seed, watch it grow despite its vulnerability, you learn how interdependent it is with the earth. The same is true of our minds, which will need to connect. This plurality is something really needed, not just for survival but to have a rich and healthy mind."

His art series on "Landscapes Parables" was in effect, a re-visit to the land, a reiteration of human body's relationship with the land, the real, rooted connection. "It is not the land we see with our naked eyes, but the one we perceive with our body. The works were not to represent the earth, but to make the work itself as earth." John's use of natural fibres - cotton and banana fibres - for his works was deliberate, intended to make that connection real, touching. John is currently working on a series of paintings on "Dissolution of the mind."

Here too, the theme of relationships finds its place.