War and global terrorism remain the recurring themes in T.V. Santhosh’s work

T.V. Santhosh is known for his propensity to charge his large sized canvases with figures in contoured and compromising positions. The artist, like many of his politically motivated contemporaries, picks up pivotal episodes from recent history and renegotiates their appearance with a shock-bulb of violent energy, which eclipses the work.

The sensitive artist often borrows from news images but in representing them through negative colors in his works, suggests otherwise hidden implications to be surmised. His effort is to project the truth amidst the barrage of images in media to present alternative narratives. He elaborates: “It’s not easy to distinguish between factual representation and distortion of facts. What is projected may not be the whole truth. And it can be subjective. I strive to formulate a language capable of capturing notions of reality.”

Employing the themes of war and global terrorism, the South Indian artist paints in lurid greens and shocking orange, recreating the effect of a color photographic negative. His paintings of impending doom, a world at the brink of an atomic end, are intentionally more apocalyptic than cathartic.

His oil on canvas, entitled ‘Tracing an Ancient Error’ on view at ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ (The Saatchi Galley, London), is an illuminated work of what seems to be a bearded man lain out, revealing his chest, holding onto something resembling a thread. An image from recent news events, the artist through it captures this scene and reinvents its value as a piece of anonymous and charged history.

In another oil on canvas, Stitching an Undefined Border, T.V. Santhosh has switched positive for negative colors. In this work, an aged man appears to be operating a machine in a confined space, standing tall against the projector on a table. The artist riddles the surface with wisps of illuminated light, which fall over the image like uncontrollable energy or an explosive force.