Vari/Vara

This was an exhibition of Paintings I have done regarding the short stories of the Malayalam writer Ashtamoorthy. I used to adore his writing and we happened to be friends for a long time. One day it suddenly dawned upon me that I could do paintings for his stories. By no means can these paintings be considered as illustrations. They are more like pictorial representations of the verbal contend; the idea was to convey the same feeling through the painting which the writing does. It was as if getting inside the writer himself and reaching down a place where he is in his creativity: amazing feel that it gave me.

Later when we decided to exhibit these works the name Vari/Vara (written line against drawn line) was the natural choice. It was the writer’s idea that he should place the verbal contends also by the side of the paintings in his own handwriting! It was by no means linear. Only parts of each and every story were shown on the walls. But there was a combination to these writings and paintings. They were like windows to the stories themselves. The spectators could walk through these writings/ paintings as if they are actually inside the stories! Really a walk through the story! In addition to this I have tried some paintings with natural colour powder (Kalamezhuthu) everyday, representing one of the stories. It gave a chance for the spectators to see the painting while it is happening. We made the brochure and the poster accordingly; the main object of both was a ‘pen-brush’ (a pen with a bristled tip). For the show we made a prop of the same which was unveiled during inauguration.

The spectators had an amazing time seeing and reading at the same time and purchasing copies of the writer’s work if necessary which was available at the show as dtp sheets. It was a retelling of the stories through pictures really!