A painter’s brush with the city’s soul

By Falah Faisal / NT
Bengaluru

S.A. Vimalanathan has a storied career that has seen him have numerous exhibitions across the country and win numerous awards. But one thing remains constant in all his work – his love for Bengaluru. His latest work Red Sky is on display at Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath as part of a show titled Resistance featuring works by 50 artists from across Karnataka.

“There are many layers to this painting and every colour is used symbolically,” he explains. “The white represents the soul of the city, the people that have spread everywhere. The red represents the warmth and the red sky and you can see there is very little green since most of the green has disappeared from the city.”

The painting is a non-linear long shot that represents the caged nature of city life. “I make my paintings so large because I want to give the viewer the feeling of seeing a city. I want them to feel small in front of it. That’s why it looks like it continues beyond the borders of the canvas,” he said.
Renowned for his paintings, he recently made headlines in the world of screen printing when he was bestowed with the Lalit Kala Akademi Award for his woodcut work based on the Bannerghatta National Park.

“I find it really ironic that we make roads through a forest and then call particular areas ‘animal crossing’. It is not them that are crossing but we who are trespassing on their natural habitat,” he explains while showing his incredibly detailed work which has tire marks running down the middle of a street that keeps animals apart. The work also bears the latitude and longitude of Bengaluru and Bannerghatta National park as he believes his work isn’t universal but very specific to the city.

The woodcut work bears a strong environmental message with a quote from David Attenborough on it that says “It’s surely our responsibility to do everything within our power to create a planet that provides a home not just for us, but for all life on Earth.”

His next work is going to be even more ambitious as he plans to work with actual cement and rods to truly represent the city. “It would have actually been completed earlier had it not been for the pandemic. Because of this, I had to put it on hold. But I plan to resume it now,” he said.