Mask Act

Realism is sacrosanct for George K. In 2007,he stunned viewers with photographs of the ruined buildings of Pandits in Srinagar; the next year he had life-size fibreglass sculptures of transgender people who assemble at the Aravani festival in Tamil Nadu. At his current solo show,“Shringara”,at the Triveni Kala Sangam,the 59-year-old artist deals with beauty.

His canvases have Kathakali dancers putting on make-up,and the paintings are juxtaposed with Sanskrit shlokas from Adi Shankara’s Soundarya Lahari. “It is the coming together of the form and the message,” says George,who works as a chartered accountant in Chennai. If dancers are in the foreground in one canvas,in another they move to the background,behind a curtain of bright red paint and the twirling borders of their green-and-white costume. The sequence leads to a dancer in pacha (green) mask,suggesting that it is the noble-hearted hero that George has painted.

After dealing with masks,George unmasks the animal instincts of individuals in a collection of fibreglass heads. The face of a school girl,complete with braided plaits,is distorted with the profile of a mountain lion with high cheekbones and curved ears. A middle-aged woman is given a parrot nose,and bat ears seem to suit a man with high eyebrows and shocked expressions. “We are all wearing a mask,the attempt is to show what lies underneath,” says George.

The exhibition is on till November 30 .