Born in 1956 in Kerala, he did his 1981 Diploma in Painting from College of Fine Arts, Trivandrum; a Post Diploma (Printmaking) from Faculty of Fine Arts, M.S. University of Baroda; and a degree in Fine Arts (Painting) from College of Fine Arts, Trivandrum. A recipient of Civitella Ranieri Foundation Fellowship, Perugia, Italy (2004); he has served residency programs courtesy the Noosa City Council Gallery, an Indo-Australian Exchange Residency; Ruskin School of Drawing & Fine Arts, Oxford on a Charles Wallace Grant.
Sudarshan Shetty’s new solo takes place at GallerySKE, Bangalore. Entitled ‘Listen Outside This House’, the works are woven around words too. Penned by the artist himself, the fictive texts are essentially rooted in his own past and specific context. In fact, these pithy narratives act as the launching point from where he initiates a deep evocation of objects.
There are total eight installations on view. There’s, for example, a dilapidated monument’s replica delicately carved in wood. The structure is apparently on the verge of collapse. It has some text written on its floor. In another installation that forms part of the display a photographic slide is shown. In it the artist searches for words in the city, whereas yet another work incorporates passages drawn from the mythological epics like Mahabharata and Ramayana.
Though inherently personal in nature, the writing form is in third person. Everything is charted out almost purposefully, from a neutral perspective, from a distance. At times mischievous and at others inquiring, his work can be both thought-provoking and entertaining. Thanks to the layers of meaning in each canvas, his oeuvre is often looked upon as a cultural encyclopaedia.
His latest solo continues at GallerySKE until January 28, 2012.
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