G R Iranna's show at Kashi Art Gallery, Fort Kochi

Edgar Pinto's Kashi Art Gallery opened its new show, works by G R.Iranna this evening.Had a nice time. Both the samosas and the works get high marks. Quaint Kashi's roughly 'inverted L' shaped space had an all new look with Iranna's paintings and installations, a dozen in all. Iranna: Hm..what nationality? Kannadiga and cute, with all 22 years of his life in Delhi. Capital exposure must have helped in getting all those kudos listed in his simple but elegant brochure. The names of most prominent galleries find place in the list. There is one huge horizontal work, young monks in ochre robes,huddled together, with sparks of enlightenment or wonderment here and there, as I see it. The monks keep occupying space in another work, but are at different levels in a maze of wooden construction. The monks continue to make their presence, sitting, again huddled together and in another, a lone monk lies on a drawing of a bench! The trees again, with roots exposed, are in the same ochre colour, another extension of spirituality. Trees that appear from the top and bottom confuse the viewer, maybe yet another extension of the confusion in a human mind, or a monks?! It's disturbing and when you keep looking at these, you feel as if you are getting into the skin of those characters. The installations are what you can talk about. The mediyadi of monks down south hang one above the other, linked by long electrical wires, plenty of them, again red, ochre if you wish. Another pair lies closer to each other, but nails bind them, a symbolic reminder of the spartan life of a monk and also the hurt that gos along with it. The bhiksha vessdel of the monk, strung together to make a long centepede-like vessel has on one side the root system of a bush-like tree and on the other side a fresh green plant. Hope it stays that way throughout the show. The icing is the pendulum plant, a charcoal painted dead plant that hangs (thereby hangs a tale?) upside down by the white wall and when switched on, swings like a pendumum, the charcoal making a design on the wall. This sure gets credit in the ideas department. Tanya Abraham curated this very different show. I really enjoyed it. Lots of friends, aquaintances, artists and people you knew but really didm't know were there. Happy evening..By the way, I loved writing this.... Prema Manmadhan