As the world has become one large self absorbing entity, individuals and individuality are becoming more profound with each passing moment. Young artists can be seen becoming more intrusive. These are interesting times when artists chose to look at themselves as part of the world rather than reflecting or reacting to the outward happenings. These two young artists, Ciby Samuel and Sagar Kamble, both have found their idioms in their self explorations within their immediate surroundings, and their worlds mirror our worlds too.
Both these young artists have studied together in Sir JJ School of Art, Mumbai and have been working parallel for a good long decade now. Both their practices evolved from a strong academic pedagogy in the times when Indian art was going through a rapid change in medium and form. Many contemporary to them transcended to new media practices while these both remained rooted in the domain of painting. Yet what we see in their practice today is cutting edge in terms of plastic form and philosophy. Their art is individualistic, speaks strongly of regional identities and makes a strong statement about self belief in today’s pseudo secular world. For me this art is avante garde in its thought; speaking about self retrospection in times when individuals are looking at external locus for their existence.
While Ciby, coming from a pious Kerala Christian family accepts and assumes his connection to the Church practice, Sagar takes inspiration from the local folklore and farming practice of his family. Both ponder over the visuals around them as sources of formalistic idiom, while questioning the role of these belief systems in today’s times. For an outward wandering eye, these may seem religious or symbolic but these paintings are far from it. Ciby finds solace in the traditional continuum, his works exude immense sense of self gratification and peace of self through submerging in your belief system. It could be religion for some, atheism for someone else, patriotism for someone. His works connect to that innate sense of conjecture which keeps you going, which pushes you to search, seek and rest.
Sagar on the other hand has been fascinated with mythological stories from oral traditions, which for him give sense to a lot of things which cannot have an epistemological explanation of the western enlightenment. Beginning with depictions of these surreal stories and characters, Sagar began connecting them to his real life experiences. Sagar not only hails from a rural background, he toils in the farms himself. The natural phenomena of seasons are life defining facts for him, and the myths began making a more sublime sense then. His works aren't any more stories from an external locus but realities of self which come out in metaphors and layered visuals. These aren't problems, these are beautiful rasas of the human condition and thus I think they come out as beautiful as nature.
I have been observing their works for the last ten years now. It has been interesting to see them explore the possibilities of academic training to new idioms of spatial and hued forms. They show immense confidence in their pedagogy, human form at core of their work with portraiture lineage, but now the time and space of humane existence assume equal significance. These works then become part of the ‘soul’ contemporary.
- Snehal Tambulwadikar-Khedkar