Wounded souls: A contemporary myth of being by Dhanaraj Keezhara

DHANARAJ

KEEZHARA

a contemporary myth of being

This series of painting are luminously presenting an innovative medium to explore the meaning of being through the aesthetics of the myths in the context of the present. Dhanaraj extracts colours of life from various sources such as tealeaf, cow dung, charcoal and the like to extract figural presence of the mythical and real characters to enunciate a dialogue with the contemporary. These dialogues are avowedly illustrative in the forms of gestural bodies; they are often marginalized and unnoticed, however, enacted

Kandanar Kelan | Oil on Canvas 2 x 2 Feet

yth has many shadows. It has history, imaginary, real, and hopes. It embodies the cultural perception and mentality of both realistic and hallucinatory experiences of people and space. Myths are a colourful mix and having a combination of many things. It connects to the present through its productive and generative contents and their re-articulations. It has the power to act and reactivate the social, political, or cognitive sensitivities of the masses. Indeed, the meaning of myth depends on how we use and what context we use it. Nevertheless, it is an expressive medium to create a sensorial affect on people. Dhanarajâ€™s brilliantly uses one of such mythsâ€” pulimaranja thondachan (pulijanmam)â€” of martial artist Kaari Gurukal not only to creatively engage and thematically organize his paintings but also to interpret the medium, which he uses.

by and through the mythical performances of theyyam. Indeed, theyyam myths of north Kerala are related to ritual, faith, and social life, but involve resistance against injustice, exploitation, and hierarchical suppression. These hierarchically imposed customs on to the everyday life of the lower castes are always expressed through bodily signs, posture, or through nonverbal communication. The performativity gestures, aural environment, and visual engagement of this ritual act are always involving an act of de-masking to overcome the social and cultural symptoms and stigmas attributed to the marginalized communities. The quasi-liminal and quasi-human body of theyyam, its performances in an eco-spatial location ofÂ kaavu, ideally creates a perfect temporal order to revisit the wounded spirits to narrate the everyday violence and injustices attributed to their life. Here past, present and future are mutually entwined to reenact, realize and heal the embodied historical wounds of the marginalized. In this situation of enacting the stories of the deprived souls through theyyam performance, there emerges a shared social space for different communities to explore their selves and consciousness. The narrative of the wounded soul in a liminal and mystifying environment of light, sound, colour, props, chants, cry, laugh, howl and bodily performances temporarily reduce the space between the performer and the viewer or artist and the spectator to pose questions and to realize the existence of being in an endangered conditions of nature and culture. Mythically enabled performances also give a momentary pause to the self to pose exploratory questions related to the being or the sense of belonging in the world in a precarious situation of the contemporary. Theyyam performances are not mirroring the world but mirroring the

conditions of precarious life and environment, and then generates dialogue, negotiation, hope and desire.

Theyyam performances are not political, but the political dissolve in it, so does Dhanaraj Keezhara’s painting. For Dhanaraj, Theyyam is a site, an aesthetically formulated site for various struggles and contestations. And therefore, he uses this site, its insights, and philosophy to articulate the subjective experience of being in the world. Here, he finds both humans and their solitudes in a sacred body of Theyyam. One cannot draw an imaginary of theyyem without the eco-system and habitual spaces in which it is located. Both are integral to this mythical formation of a ritual performance: like the human and the The canvases are blended softly with environment. Hence, thick colours and emotions, and each the myriad nature, rustic figure is occupied their spaces without life, human bonding with encroaching the dense spaces of nature. nature and estrangement from it, the mere solitude and agony of the self/performer/god are some of the recurring themes of this series. What is so significant about this series is that it reflects Dhanaraj’s enduring experiments with the shades of natural colours and the compositional scheme of the canvas, apart from positioning his artisticself along with the human beings of those who deprived and marginalized either by customary practices or by the commodification and mystification of the ritual art. Recalling Bertolt Brecht’s point, Dhanaraj says ‘it includes images of the world…Art is never without consequences’. So, series articulates dilemma of modern beings, their silence, marginal disposition, and negotiation. The canvases are blended softly with thick colours and emotions, and each figure is occupied their spaces without encroaching the dense spaces of nature. Throughout the series, Dhanaraj juxtaposes this harmony in his expression; however, while elaborating on the theme of the gestural figures, the paintings are also showcasing the distraction and destruction

Transformation | Oil on Canvas 2 x 2 Feet

In a panoramic view, what remains in this ritualized visual-sonic landscape of the theyyem performance is the fragrant disposition of bodily gestures and postures of human beings, and the materiality of the props, objects, and vivid shades of nature. Dhanaraj adopts this imaginary as a thematic surface and background of his paintings, whereby the interplay between environment and human are scrupulously brushed to make the visible sense of our own—being’s—blindness in our everyday consciousness; the involved darkness of the contemporary world.

of the natural and cultural environment. These symbolic figural dispositions are so marvelously idealized as stirring dimensions of the state of being in the everyday life. These figures are either part of the ritual performance or as an onlooker. The artist is carefully unfolding innumerable interpretation possibilities for these figures as gestures of dedication, hierarchal body postures, the world of solitude, displaced, and wandering, and so on. Dhanaraj is not presenting them as a mere artifact of memory or cultural nostalgia, rather they are dynamic and active beings but always enmeshed in masses, as those who are unnoticed and invincible; always lives in the margins. The composition is yet another remarkable aspect of this series—Wounded souls: A contemporary myth of being. While appropriating certain existing forms and sizes, Dhanaraj dazzlingly innovative in experimenting with a multi-layered compositional scheme, which directly corresponding to the theme of the series: dilemmas of mythical beings in the contemporary period. The frame of pulijanmam, for instance, circles with an ever-growing desire of the mythical character –pulimaranja thondachan— to become a human being, which has been denied by the rigid social structure and our own fears to act. The colours are sparingly used to accommodate the inner life and its dialectic involves the gestural-self and stunningly encounters the gazes of the spectator. Muthappan’s paintings in this series are another example of the inner dichotomy that the artist wants to dwell, where the facial gesture or physiognomy of the performer are static and repetitive; a mask which uncovers inner feelings and agony of the being: as something like an exemplary revelation of our own passive agency, lives through the bounded blindness or darkness of the contemporary time; Like theyyam, the artist urges, we need to break and overcome the mythical boundaries of injustice, and conditions of our own marginalities to reveal the sense of being in the world. Hence, his lines, figures, shades, and manifestation of colures are political aesthetics to distract and distribute a critical sensibility to the being.

JNU – New Delhi October 2019

Dr. Sujith Kumar Parayil

Everyday Life | Oil on Canvas 1 x 1 Feet

Pulijanmam | Cow dung and charcoal on tea-washed handmade paper sticked canvas 4 x 2 feet

Meenamruthu | Oil on Canvas 2 x 2 Feet

Ramettan | Oil on Canvas 1 x 1 Feet

Everyday Life | Oil on Canvas 2 x 2 Feet

Stagnation | Oil on Canvas 3 x 3 Feet

Sacred Groves | Oil on Canvas 3 x 4 Feet

Sacred Trees | Oil on Canvas 4 x 3Â½ Feet

hanaraj Keezhara had held solo and group exhibitions in more than 30 villages in Kerala (1986-91); Participated in the annual painting exhibitions organized by Kerala Lalitha Kala Academy (1989, 1990, 1991, 2004, 2007 and 2008) ;Exhibition of spiral painting at Ravindra Kalakshetra, Bengaluru (1993), Group exhibition titled ‘From the nether the ceaseless dance’ in three towns of Kerala (1993-94), Environment photo exhibition in Ooty (1997, 1998 and 1999); Group exhibition in Chitra Art Gallery in Bengaluru (1999); Solo exhibition Teri Bangalore (2005); Group exhibition by Bangalore Film Society (2005, 2006 and 2007); Solo exhibition’ Truth from the margins ‘- AFB Bangalore (2007) ; Silpa Chitra - Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath (2009), Solo exhibition ‘Stirring silence ‘- AFB Bangalore (2010), Exhibition at Art Bengaluru (2012) at UB City – Bangalore, Group exhibition - Galerie Sara Arakkal (2012), group exhibition ArtWave by Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath ( 2014); Every Day Life: The Repertoire of Ritual and Performance, a multi-media collaboration with US sound artist Diana Chester at Kannur in Kerala (2014). Sugatha - a terracotta sculpture, Kerala (2015) ; Theyyam Nelathezhuthu - transient painting on courtyard- Collaboration art with Diana Chester, Kannur (2016); Community graffiti at Fishmarket, Cherukunnu, Kannur (2016); Theyyam - Ritual, Myth, and People - a popup installation- Collaboration art project with Diana Chester, Keezhara, Kerala (2017); A Sculpture garden, tribute to O N V Kurup, at GGVHS School, Cherukunnu (2017) ; Solo Exhibition -Chiaroscuro - the shades of light and life- Metro Art Gallery, Bangalore (2017) ; Art for HOPE workshop for differently-abled people At HOPE , Pilathara(2018); Solo exhibition- Stirring Silence, at Artville ,Bangalore (2018) He has co-authored the book ‘Rain In the Wind -A Collection of Art and Poetry,’ an innovative collaborative work that shares the poetry of Deneene A Collins of USA. Awards and recognitions include International Photography Competition YDC – Netherlands 1995; Indiana University Photography Award – 2014. Dhanaraj is also an Adobe certified trainer. Born - 1969, Keezhara, Kannur, Kerala, INDIA Studies - Gitanjali College of Fine arts, Kannur Dhanaraj, at present, working as a Head of the Department of Art & Visual Media at CHRISTEL HOUSE INDIA, Bangalore and living in Bangalore with wife Nisha, son Sidhartha and daughter Tejaswini.

Cover: Transformation | Oil on Canvas 3 x 3 Feet

A special thanks to Christel House India Management, staff, students and their parents as well as all those who have supported my concern and worked with me. Thanking to my friends Dr. Sujith Kumar Parayil, P Sudhakaran Catalog design : PP Rajeevan Photographs : Chandan

Dhanaraj Keezhara 692, masjid street , Ramaswamypalaya, Maruthi Sevanagar, Bangalore- 560033 India phone no: +91 80- 254 20 188 Email: dhanarajkeezhara@gmail.com

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