'SETHUSAMUDRAM' India + Sri Lanka (2010-13)

The Sethusamudram Project was a 3 year collaborative art project that Theertha International Artists Collective, Colombo, Sri Lanka and 1.Shanthi Road Studio, Bengaluru, India had developed collectively envisioning in engaging with and addressing this highly complex and variegated history and emotions surrounding the concept of Sethusamudram. This included the foreground, links, similarities, and shared anxieties, emotions and histories between the two geographical areas. The overall research area covered a wide area of study that included society, politics, history, religion, mythology as relevant to Sri Lanka and India. 

The Sethusamudram Project engaged in the wider discussion of history navigating through the contemporary dynamics of art (involvement with, and discussion on ideological and methodological innovations of visual arts) within the region. This project unfolded a collaborative and dialog making platform where Theertha and 1 Shanthi Road responded to each other. All the programs were reciprocal and were a continuation and progression from one to the other.

We thank all the artists who were part of the collaboration.

Artists / SRI LANKA

Anoli Perera | Anura Krishanthe | Bandu Manamperi | Fireflies Art Net | Jagath Weerasinghe | Janananda Laksiri | Koralegedara Pushpakumara | Lalith Manage | Lakisha Fernando | Pala Pothupithiye | Pradeep Chandrasiri | Pradeep Thalawatta | Prasanna Ranabahu | Sanath Kalubadana | Shani Jayawardane | Thisath Thoradeniya 

Artists / INDIA

Aishwaryan K | Anil Kumar H A | Babu Eshwar Prasad | Bharathesh G D | Bhavani G S | Christoph Storz | Dimple B Shah | Gautam Sonti | Gururaj H S | Madhu D | Mangala A M | Manjunath H P | Mohan Kumar T | Nanaiah C | Nandesh Shanthiprakash | Pradeep Kambathalli | Prakash Lakshman | Ravikumar Kashi | Shamala B | Shantamani M | Shivanand B | Shivaraju B S (Cop Shiva) | Surekha | Suresh Jayaram | Udeya Vir Singh | Umesh Kumar P N | Umesh Maddanahalli | Urmila V G | Usha Rao | Venugopal V G

- Suresh Jayaram, Curator

The following images are my drawings created for the 'Sethu Book Art Project':

'LOST IN TRANSITION' curated by Avijit Dutta @ The Harrington Street Arts Centre, Kolkata (January 2014)

With change of time, new inventions come our way as a necessity for more comfort, to communicate within and minimal time span reasons. Every decade establishes the fact strongly that ‘time is money’. In this whole hustle and bustle of things we tend to forget that certain things invented in the past were quite relevant in their own life time but their importance diminished with time and was, replaced with something faster, easier and more economical. Many of the old practices and art got lost or dying with this transition. In the same manner the art of writing and the pleasure of receiving a letter started to die with time. The emails, after invention of the computers and the internet might have tried to keep alive that very emotion and the art of writing a letter which somehow couldn't survive the pressure mounted by the demand of the times. So what happens to the glory of the envelopes and the post cards? Do we just forget them and move on with time? Keep the old practice wrapped up in a velvet cloth and store them in our old trunks and let the future generation never experience the emotions and happiness attached with it?.
Being part of the experience of writing and receiving letters at some point of time made me come up with this show which hopes to bring back the nostalgia of handwritten letters. The title of the show is ‘Lost in Transition’. 

Avijit Dutta, Curator

Acrylic Colours on Wooden Post Box

'Mayamriga'   Watercolour on Paper (postcard)

'Aganthuka'    Watercolour on Paper (postcard)

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'MEMORABILIA' curated by Lina Vincent Sunish @ Gallery Sumukha, Bangalore (Jan - Feb 2014)

Being an individual migrated from a rural background and practicing art in multicultural, cosmopolitan surroundings has been influenced my works in general with an emphasis on the complex, multi-layered character of the urban living and the changing facets of human relationships and identity. People migrating from villages to metros for various reasons remains a larger socio-political issue in the present context considering the increasing rural-urban divide in our society. I have been addressing these uncertain, fragile characters of urban existence in my works since last few years.

When I think of my past, I still have vivid memories of my childhood and schooldays I spent in my native village. The emotional attachment I still have with my birthplace and the image of the house where I spent those years becomes the momentous element for this particular work in the show ‘Memorabilia’. Using a large imagery on canvas as a backdrop, I have made an effort to revisit my nostalgic reminiscences with a series of animated drawings which are narrative in nature and executed like clippings of an autobiography. The moving images are also an attempt to connect myself to those lived memories more emotionally, eventually making it a very personal experience of recollections.

The second part of the works is a set of drawings developed from photographic references with recollections from various phases of the last two and a half decade. The renderings done in graphite and watercolours combine imageries of specific time, situation and location along with a sort of surreal, humorous extensions of fantasy  elements.

V.G.Venugopal

Bangalore, December 2013

from left: Priti Vadakkath, VG Venugopal, Ravikumar Kashi, Lina Vincent Sunish, Mohan Kumar T, Samanta Batra Mehta, Clare Arni & Anoli Perera

'PRINT SPOTLIGHT - II' @ Gallery 545, Bangalore. (November 2013)

An Exhibition of Prints created in the workshop at JMS Mani Printmaking Studio, Bangalore. The workshop also produced a portfolio of Etchings by the 9 participating artists:

JMS Mani, Aishwaryan K, Dimple B. Shah, Mohan Kumar T, Naveen Kumar A, Pradeep Kumar DM, Rajesh S, Urmila VG, Venugopal VG.

from left: Urmila VG, Aishwaryan K, Venugopal VG, Mohankumar T, Naveen Kumar A.

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