Life is full of illusions, which in turn keep its stark realities cloaked under their convincing garb,” muses Chennai-based mixed media artist Yuvan Bothysathuvar as he shows us around at his ongoing solo show ‘Shifting Paradigms: Learning From Life’ at Gallery Veda in Chennai.

The 40-year-old, who gave up pigments and the canvas for mixed media eight years ago, believes only an artist could break these illusions and remind humanity of life’s true nature through novel mediums of expression.

In his recent body of art, Yuvan marries Papier Colle with geometric abstraction and creates a unique visual rhetoric to depict the different faces of life.

“There is something magical about paper and the printed word. Rough or glossy, blazingly white or dirty, paper comes with a range of colours, tones and crisp. A blend of these elements gives my works an intriguing look,” he says.

Little black letters indeed speak out in ‘Ripple’, a 96”X96” work done on eight panels of plywood. Coiled over a backdrop of soiled printed paper is a huge ripple made of thinly cut magazine strips. It is not just the contrasting tones of both the papers that make the work eye-catchy but also appearances of smaller ripples that fuse with the troughs and crests of the bigger one.

“The ripple symbolises the disturbances that plague our life. One moment there is calm and then something, whether in the form of social, political or economical tumult pierces through our composure, just the way a pebble disturbs water,” summarises Yuvan.

Although pregnant with meaning, Yuvan’s works are evenly catchy and loaded with colours as the artist believes his priority is to make his work visually pleasant rather than preachy. “Even if your art depicts the true horrors of a war, what is the use when its goriness repels people,” he says.

A native of Tiruvannamalai, Yuvan begun his stint in art by painting portraits for a banner company in 1992.  Although he later moved to Chennai to pursue his graduation and post-graduation in Visual Communication from the Government College of Fine Arts, Chennai, it wasn’t until 2007 that he discovered a wider vista in mixed media.

A former researcher at Chennai’s Lalit Kala Akademi, Yuvan uses optical illusion as a symbol in his work ‘Grass Is Greener on the Other Side’, to show the difference between deception and reality. The work, comprising a twin set of square boards plastered with colourful strips of paper, looks like a spray of confetti from a distance, but appears to be alternate pairs of green and red squares when seen from the corners.

“The squares show how coloured our judgment would be if we do not see a thing from both the sides. The same faulty perception makes us envious towards others, even though nature has invested the same qualities in us,” Yuvan says.

The artist addresses the transiency of life in his work ‘Wall’ (90”X41”) which he has made by leaving hazy imprints of freshly painted posters on plywood board. “Even though the images are residue of the original painting, the reality is they have replaced the latter, just like one generation is subbed by another,” he explains.

Besides, paper which he procures from second hand book shops, the artist uses materials like threads, mirrors, jute, turmeric, beads, stainless steel and different types of stones to articulate his concepts.

Honoured with the ‘Emerging Artist of the Year’ award as Part of ‘Glenfiddich’ Artist in residence programme in Scotland, 2013, Yuvan recently won the CIMA Merit Award 2015 in Kolkata.

Currently improvising on his concepts for the Papier Colle Collection, Yuvan says giving them form is a daunting task. From sorting out the papers to manually cutting (or tearing) them into several dimensions to gluing them to shape takes him from three weeks to one-and-a-half months to achieve.

But the labour pays off eventually. “It does, not when people buy my works, but when they fall in love with them. To them I don’t have to explain my concepts because deep within I know they have found their own meanings and that’s what makes me happy,” he adds.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Magazine / by Samhat Mohapatra / August 29th, 2015

Coimbatore :

Renuka Mohanraj, an independent upcoming beautician, is fully booked for all the ‘muhurtham’ dates up to November. Not all of them are by brides, but include friends, relatives and cousins of the new to-be-wedded couples. Here’s the catch — the main service in demand is for draping saris.

“People prefer us independent beauticians for draping saris as against the new parlours that have been popping up all around,” she says. “Most youngsters otherwise prefer the more fancy salons for hair blow-drying, straightening, styling and make-up.”

With a growing population of women in their twenties and thirties not knowing how to wear sari by themselves, this is fast turning into a specialized service, even in the non-bridal beauty service segment. Once considered a basic skill of most Indian women above the age of 21, a neat sari drape is now considered a “work of art”.

“Now women are particular about how thin or endowed the sari makes them look and they do not want to experiment by trying it themselves,” says another independent beautician, Omana Thomas. “Especially, with heavy saris like kanchivaram, benarasi, organzas or even heavily-embroidered Georgettes. They don’t mind spending a few thousands on it,” she says.

As a result, sari draping has become a lucrative service on offer by beauty parlours and beauticians. A sari draped according to the classic Indian style, which is a 20-minute job, costs anywhere between Rs200 to Rs600.

“A decade ago, women close to the couple used to call us mainly for hair and make-up. Only clients studying in colleges or still unmarried used to request help with their saris or request a drape as an additional service,” says Thomas. “However, now this is the main service requested by even married women in their late twenties. Hair and make-up have become side services,” she says.

Sari draping experts and old-timers say this change in trend can be attributed to changing lifestyles and fashion patterns. “Two decades ago, women used to wear saris everyday to college. It slowly changed to salwar suits, kurtas and kurtis,” says designer Aparna Venkatesh. “Besides farewell, graduation day, ethnic day and friends’ weddings, the sari is hardly worn,” she adds.

This has also led to sari draping classes cropping up across not just across the city, but the country too. “While some offer it as a separate one-day course, some offer it as part of personal grooming classes,” said Kavita Ramesh, who used to organize personal grooming workshops for young women twice a year.

Meena Krishnakumar, one of the most popular sari draping teachers in Coimbatore, says she gets at least 15 to 18 students a month. “A majority of students are girls who come to me just after their wedding date is fixed and their mother-in-laws have asked them about their sari tying abilities. There are also the newly appointed college lecturers and students of colleges who insist on wearing sari once a week,” she said.

However, Meena doubts that her classes will ever create a dent in the demand for professional sari drapers. “Sari draping requires regular practice because you need to learn to drape different types of fabrics to your shape and size. Just attending a two-hour session and then trying it for a function three months later will not work,” she says. “Regularly wearing a sari is almost impossible now,” she adds

Once considered a basic skill of most Indian women above the age of 21, a neat sari drape is now considered a “work of art”.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Coimbatore / by Pratiksha Ramkumar, TNN / August 30th, 2015