Purple Pose

A few years ago,Kerala-born artist George Martin PJ burst into a crowded art scene and yet aroused interest with his luridly coloured sculptures and canvases submerged in scenes from dense urban spaces. While he manages to stand apart with his deft technique,the works are largely aimed at redeeming the world. At his show “Cavities” last year,the entire backroom of the Palette Art Gallery was occupied by the multimedia installation Colourless Breath — a glassy-eyed goat lying listless on a table,soaked in garish red light. The installation grabbed a lot of eyeballs,thanks to its shock value. While the shock element is missing from “Objective Voice”,his month-long exhibition at the Vadehra Art Gallery,the hues are still bold.

The exhibition,including nine drawings and six installations in fibreglass,vinyl and aluminium,seems like visual poetry. The images are quotidian in nature — the airplane,the skull,the chicken — yet they hold your gaze. Take,for instance,Crude sanctum (below),a takeoff on the German post-war artist Joseph Beuys’s iconic performance work I Like America and America Likes Me in 1974,opposing the American invasion of Vietnam. Martin’s work,cast in fibreglass,depicts Beuys in a deep purple sculpture,huddled like a shepherd in his felt tent,a walking stick protruding out,while his companionable coyote peeps through the blanket. Another work,Urgency of the present (left),shows a curious mutt,the back paws resting on a cushion watching a posse of cartoon characters dangling from the wall.

The exhibition is on till October 29 at the Capital. Contact 011-65474005