Shridhar Iyer's Solo "Tambulam" at Art Konsult Gallery Is An 'Offering' To Nature

Shridhar Iyer with his installation "Still, I love you," at his ongoing solo show, "Tambulam" at Art Konsult Gallery, Hauz Khas.

Shridhar and I share a common background — Bhopal, and we both shifted to Delhi almost around the same time, two decades ago. Yet, this is my first ever interview of his for a publication! 

Currently on view at Art Konsult gallery, Hauz Khas, New Delhi, the show is titled "Tambulam" and is curated by Rahul Bhattacharya. 

What resonated the most with me was his telling installation, accompanying his poem, "Amiya aur Champa ke Ped." 

Shridhar Iyer, "Amiya aur Champa ke Ped," 2019, mixed media, size variable, visual-sound installation.

The title of the poem, and the installation, were like a memory from a time long gone, something that I had seen growing up but had forgotten because I had not seen enough of it in my home for the past two decades — New Delhi.

No, this is not a rant against a big city life. I like living in New Delhi and this is the city that has given me my livelihood through a profession that I love being a part of — journalism and writing. Yet, one has been so caught up in the race for survival for the past two decades that sunrise, sunset, trees, chirping of birds, the soft smell of wet earth... all went out of life as hours increasingly got consumed sitting in front of a computer in an air-conditioned space that shut out reality of all variety.

Slowly, the time one got to sleep and recover for the next day at work also reduced, forcing one to catch up on sleep, and give rest to the tired mind over the weekend. 

So, even though there are enough options in and around the National Capital Region to stay connected with nature, one really didn't manage to do that.

Shridhar's installation and the poem not only connected me with Bhopal, but with a time when life was a little less complex and allowed freedom for simple pleasures like just wandering in the BHEL social forest near Sports Club listening to the soft crunching sound of dry petals under your feet, the smell of raw bamboo, an odd toad croaking somewhere... 

Besides his installations, the canvases are also rich with nature's plush colours — as forests tend to look, freshly bathed after a monsoon shower. Plus, they are an ode to the strand of Abstraction that developed in the vast stretches of Madhya Pradesh, producing one of the greatest masters of Modern Indian art, Syed Haider Raza. 

Shridhar Iyer, "Jatra" series, 2019, mixed media on canvas, 48 x 96 in, 2018.

Most importantly, these canvases are his sub-conscious ode to his mentor, Jagdish Swaminathan, the great master of Modern Indian art, under whose tutelage Shridhar acquired his spurs. These canvases are his ode to the new roads he got to travel to discover art in the deepest corners of Madhya Pradesh. After all, the world knows and fetes Gond tribal art and pays heavy sums to buy works by the late Jangarh Singh Shyam only because Swaminathan took pains to reach those villages and bring out the great artists from its milieu for the larger world to see.
That's a long story to be told elsewhere.
Please see my review of Shridhar's solo and other images here, published in www.blouinartinfo.com.

All images: Archana Khare-Ghose