The art of Rao
Malaysia’s lush and fragile jungles have inspired the works of Indian artist K. Siva Kesava Rao. VERONICA SHUNMUGAM takes a look.
AS destructive as Nature sometimes is, her beauty and fragility are inspiring. Indian artist K. Siva Kesava Rao found this to be especially true during his visits to Sarawak’s Bario highlands and went on to create works in homage of earth’s greenery.
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Indian artist K. Siva Kesava Rao with one of his favourite wax-resist works, To Prominence. |
“I never felt like I was an outsider. They made me feel very welcome. Also, I had the chance to learn from Sarawak’s artists such as batik painter Michael Lim,” adds Kesav, who has been nicknamed “Raja Thamby” by the people of Rumah Garie, the longhouse that has become a research base for him.
“Edric (Ong, Sarawakian crafts designer) and I have been working over the last five years doing research on natural fibres and dyes in the highlands of Borneo. I’ve spent a lot of time at Rumah Garie longhouse – 20 days at a time – learning to use natural resources to develop natural dyes,” says Kesav, whose exhibition works have been inspired by the lush variety of plants he came across in the jungles.
Kesav explains that he decided to base his works on the simple leaf, instead of the usual landscapes. Leaves, he says, are a down-to-earth theme that common people can relate to.
“My wax-resist (batik) works were inspired by leaves and the hues from the plant world’s palette,” he points out.
The artist, who aligns himself with the Surrealist camp, has also used dry pastels to produce pretty works under the Leaf in Flight series.
“Leaves are carried from place to place, and they exist in different climes and atmospheres. Besides this, works from this series are also my way of describing the awesome sight of creepers, roots and tree trunks mingling at the river’s edge,” he explains.
Through his works, Kesav also comments on the jungle’s vulnerability: “When I went into the Bornean forest, I felt inundated by the volume of the forest, the serenity of the people and the abundant resources. It was like paradise.
“But after a few years, I noticed that many trees had been cut down and the lumber business was very active,” he adds.
Some of Kesav’s still lifes, which are in watercolour, also allude to Malaysia’s fragile ecosystems by featuring water pots balanced somewhat precariously upon plant vases. His still-lifes have thus been categorised under a series entitled Balancing Act.
The paintings from the Balancing Act series, reveals Kesav, also bear resemblance to the works he created soon after finishing undergraduate and graduate studies in painting and graphic design respectively, at the well-known Maharaja Sayajirao University (set up in 1949) in Baroda, Gujarat, India.
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Inundated is the newest of Kesav's wax-resist works - it is his response to the devastating Asian tsunami od Dec 26. |
“India has batik as well but ours is entirely different from the batik here. I prefer to term Malaysian batik as wax-resist because in this case, the outlines of images are made with wax while the background is retained. We don’t paint an image, but we ‘resist’ the wax,” says Kesav, who used the tjanting (a pen-like tool filled with wax “ink”; tjanting comes from the Malay word canting) in a painterly tradition.
Being new to tjanting batik, Kesav shows a noticeable awkwardness in his wax strokes; if you’re looking for steady outlines and well-placed blimps (the result of practiced pauses), you’ll not find it here. Instead, haphazard lines reflecting what Kesav admits to be “impatience” sketch out images filled with earthy greens, indigos, orchres and reds.
“Mine are not pre-meditated works. I’m not used to ‘planned’ batik works. And being an impatient painter – I don’t have as much patience as Michael (Lim) – I’ve used the media to my convenience,” he says.
Inundated (2004) is the newest of Kesav’s works – it is his response to the devastating Asian tsunami. The Messenger (2004) pays homage to the role of animals as the messengers of Mother Earth.
“A painting may be a decorative piece, but it has to say something – that is my philosophy on making art. If you want to say something, you have to look for people who can listen to you and this is difficult. If you don’t want to say something, the whole world is for you,” says Kesav.
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