Waking as much as the sound of coir making close to the shore of the Ashtamudi Lake was routine for Smitha M. Babu, a resident of the Kollam district. Manufacturing coir was the principle occupation of the individuals within the neighborhood. Smitha, a graduate of the Faculty of Advantageous Arts, Thiruvananthapuram, paints her childhood experiences on canvases to share with the world the working-class life that she grew up seeing.
‘Pakkalam’, the house the place coir is made, can also be the identify of the artwork exhibition. The coir is extracted from the husk of the coconut and soaked in freshwater or saltwater to make it smooth. In contrast to different fibres, the coir from the coconut doesn’t break because of its comparatively robust nature. The harvested coir then goes by the method of spinning and weaving. Smitha makes use of watercolour paints as her medium of inventive expression. She has been engaged on watercolour work since 2016.
She needs to painting what she noticed in her childhood in these frames, however greater than that, current it by a efficiency. Smitha is greater than only a painter. She can also be a theatre artist. On the primary day of the exhibition, she enacted a theatre efficiency of Pakkalam, the artwork of coir making.
There’s a robust unforgettable sense of theatricality in her work. She reveals a panoramic view of the tradition by a theatre efficiency. The individuals within the work appear as if they’re on-stage characters performing to an unseen viewers. They’re appearing out their each day life – individuals gathered within the streets, the taking part in of music, youngsters working round on the grounds, cleansing the home, fishing, praying and, in fact, coir making. The abstraction in her work is seen by the unfamiliar motion of the village individuals, dancing in a method that has not been witnessed earlier than. Her work use very refined earth tones, inexperienced and brown for the panorama and sky, white and light-weight pastel colors for the individuals, and even small pops of color in sure areas in a number of the canvases.
In the course of the inauguration of the exhibition, the subject of curatorship was additionally introduced up. Doubts on whether or not a solo exhibition may very well be put collectively had risen. An artwork curator’s job is to plan and arrange an artist’s or a bunch of artists’ work, to exhibit it in a method they deem the spectators could take pleasure in it, leaving the curator with a type of inventive freedom. It’s the job of the curators to establish and assist the artists develop, a guiding hand of types.
Smitha can add yet another ability to her very vibrant resume; forensic artist. Smitha, alongside along with her husband, Shajith Babu, have been requested by the Kollam police to create a sketch of the suspected wrongdoer within the latest kidnapping case of a six-year-old. She says that they have been contacted the night time of the kidnapping, November 27. “It was across the time that we have been busy with the preparation of the solo exhibition. When the police got here to us that night time, we thought we’d give it a shot”. That they had by no means completed something like this earlier than however have been nonetheless decided for the sake of the little woman. That night time they needed to give you a sketch of the suspect primarily based on an eyewitness’s report. Though it did take a while, they have been capable of produce a sketch that was then launched to the general public. Fortunately, the kid was discovered deserted in a park, Asramam Maidanam, the following afternoon, ending a 20-hour statewide search. “We have been all relieved once we heard the information that she was discovered”.
Pakkalam, a up to date solo artwork exhibition venture by Kerala Lalithakala Akademi, curated by Pavel, with over watercolour work by Smitha M. Babu, is at present being exhibited within the Durbar Corridor Artwork Gallery, Ernakulam, until December 22. Come and witness the theatrical work showcasing the artwork of straightforward residing and coir making, a real reward in your senses.
