Artist Ranjith Raman is known to sew together many of his elusive thoughts and images coupled with fleeting feelings as if they would disintegrate if not molded in a solid form. A mélange of memories, experiences and our life journey are a bit like that! If we do not hold on to them, they tend to slip away into oblivion…
And yet, what’s it we are really holding on to but just a few sensations, which can barely be imparted with any tangible form? Ranjith Raman’s art, to paraphrase Paul Klee, does not create the visible, rather it makes visible! We see an abstract at times and representational depiction of space other times. The very essence of various locations gets embedded in the geometry or in those organic forces, which have shaped them.
Expansive textured topographical views of both housing amid coconut trees in monochrome are there. Then there is a quiet little temple that evokes the calm of being present in an austere place in another composition. Contrast the same with the large untitled diptych apparently teeming with vibrantly colored and differently shaped fabric patches, often reminding one of a seemingly unorganized urban skyline dotted with concrete blocks of modest dwellings and tall buildings. These shifts in language reflect the artist’s temperament.
Color is central to his artistic expression. The medium of smooth silk and cotton fiber embroidered on fabric employing different stitches embodies his vocabulary and underlines his intent. Fibers and fabric do the job of paint, brush and canvas. Much as it may seem a touch improbable for this offbeat medium, spontaneity is apparent in the current body of work. He prepares the cotton fabric surface covering it with the running stitch in one color from edge to edge much like someone would prime a canvas. The time-consuming process marks the work with an instinctual idea of what the artist wants to create.
And yet, what’s it we are really holding on to but just a few sensations, which can barely be imparted with any tangible form? Ranjith Raman’s art, to paraphrase Paul Klee, does not create the visible, rather it makes visible! We see an abstract at times and representational depiction of space other times. The very essence of various locations gets embedded in the geometry or in those organic forces, which have shaped them.
Expansive textured topographical views of both housing amid coconut trees in monochrome are there. Then there is a quiet little temple that evokes the calm of being present in an austere place in another composition. Contrast the same with the large untitled diptych apparently teeming with vibrantly colored and differently shaped fabric patches, often reminding one of a seemingly unorganized urban skyline dotted with concrete blocks of modest dwellings and tall buildings. These shifts in language reflect the artist’s temperament.
Color is central to his artistic expression. The medium of smooth silk and cotton fiber embroidered on fabric employing different stitches embodies his vocabulary and underlines his intent. Fibers and fabric do the job of paint, brush and canvas. Much as it may seem a touch improbable for this offbeat medium, spontaneity is apparent in the current body of work. He prepares the cotton fabric surface covering it with the running stitch in one color from edge to edge much like someone would prime a canvas. The time-consuming process marks the work with an instinctual idea of what the artist wants to create.
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