An artist driven by mystical arts, philosophy, mythology and technology

All the themes, subjects or disciplines Baiju Parthan has explored are largely out of his urge to understand ‘why I am I here, & what I’m doing as an individual and as an artist’.

London based Aicon Gallery has just showcased a solo ‘Dislocation’ (Milljunction- Part 2) of his works. Elaborating on his new body of works, he has stated: “Mumbai being a cosmopolitan city, consists of a floating population of immigrants from various parts of the country. Each one of these communities and individuals has their own version of Mumbai as their recollection of getting to know and comprehend it.”

In some works, different styles of painting exist within a single frame, in others it seems like two different time zones are pictured simultaneously. The artist also subtly uses mirroring within some of them and in a few the surface is interrupted by dripping computer code. This gives rise to a dizzying sense of multiplicity. His new series is both celebration and lament, archaic and super-technological. His use of mirroring, time-lags and alternate realities suggests a realm, or a mind that is disintegrating, the products of a restless gaze that never settles on one thing, or one time zone, for long.

A review in The Hindu by writer Ramya Sen mentions that his interest in technology, married to his passion for mythology is reflected in his art. The artist had stated: "The attempt is to capture this particular marker and also re-assert the physicality of the photographic image.”

Baiju Parthan has studied the Indian mystical arts, tantra, ritual arts, and Indian mythology that he includes in his contemporary art practices. He adds: “All these themes or subjects I have studied were out of the need to understand why I am I here, and what I am doing. And as such they have become part of my life and my art. I think those things have become lens through which I look at reality and that gets reflected in my art quite naturally.”