Beyond The Myth Exhibition- Art Positive

Beyond the Myth

Dear Friends

I am delighted to bring you this ethereal show titled “ Beyond The Myth” My association with Elan started over 10 years ago. when we first showed a sculpture of a Nandi which was made of bronze by fusing together hundreds of small sculptures to create a temple like form. This lead to us showing his life sized work God Particle in The India Art Fair and a solo show of his works thereafter which we presented in 2017. 

The brilliance of his work and his technique has won appreciation of critics, collectors and fellow artists. Not only is he a brilliant artist but a truly wonderful human being, whose honesty and integrity comes

across in his works. He has always been fascinated by bulls, which are at the core of all his creative pursuits. In this show as well, he has the “angel bulls” as the central theme, but he has also juxtaposed it with nature to portray his native town and his roots , and also the forms and the materials have evolved to include wood, fibre glass and metal castings. It has been a pleasure working with Elanchezhiyan who has put forth this beautiful collection. The wide range of works is a collectors delight which I am happy to share with you through this exhibition and the accompanying catalogue.I hope you will enjoy this beautiful collection 

Cheers

Anu Bajaj

Curator's Note

Living among the village culture has become a day-to-day activity for me and the love for nature dominates every art form that I am involved with. Not only that, my love for nature also grows along with my art. The resemblance of cow, bull, yogi and sacred trees have become a part of my art inspired by the Indus valley civilization motifs. To go by the quote, ‘Change is the only word unchanged’, during the course of exploration, my art has grown in a manner wherein I have changed the medium from brass metal to incorporate wood, granite and casting metals. In my latest creation I have used strategies like traditional oxidised techniques to create unique sculptures. Sacred animals in village rituals have always attracted me. These were depicted in my previous sculptures. During village festivals, people get attracted to sculptures like that of Vali on the Chariot, which led me to the idea of creating a surrealist group composition of the angel bulls lifted by Dwarapalakas named, “Angel Bulls”. These, I feel would be found to be wonderful by people when hung at their homes. The Motto of my work is to establish a life filled with art, which not only decorates a modern space but also takes one closer to nature. It’s a great privilege for me to make people feel exactly the way I feel when I see my sculpture. To make people appreciate this aspect of nature, the life in it and everything else seen in my creation. It’s the happiest moment for an artist. The artist providing a feather to a young herdsman and allowing the cow and bulls to surround him gives the feel of Godly Krishna. A great amount of joy is exuded when the herdsman dancing and playing the flute is the visual treat  through the cows and bulls in the lily pond. Symbols of fertility in ancient mythology have a history as old as the creation  of the first myths themselves. Primarily, the myths were about description of the world’s creation. They depicted how the tree, the man, the sun and all the other things came into existence. Today, to validate new discoveries, a return to these  mythological roots is required and reflection on this symbolism leads to contemplation about the moment when the whole  life was created.

 

If we conceive society as a cultural concept in which people’s behavior is representative of the types of relationships  they have with each other, then it necessitates evaluating the cultural aspect of each event to investigate its social  dimension. There are various definitions of culture. Patricia Marshall on her part defines it as “consistent ways in which people experience, interpret, and respond to the world around”. Robert Murphy believed that “culture means the total  body of tradition borne by a society and transmitted from generation to generation. It thus refers to the norms, values and standards by which people act, and it includes the ways distinctive in each society of ordering the world and rendering  it intelligible. Culture is a set of mechanisms for survival, but it provides us also with a definition of reality. It is the matrix into which we are born; it is the anvil upon which our persons and destinies are forged” So in our culture the symbolic representation of some animals and plants gives us a closer connection to God. I try to bring out this connection between nature and God in all my works.

P. Elanchezhiyan

 

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