Powerful narrative on mural

An exhibition of Kerala mural art Shivam was held at the Alliance Francaise recently. Presented by Kondoor Foundation, this work was created by Sasi Warrier from The Indian School of Art, Kochi, along with his students.

This mural, which is 18-foot-long and seven-foot in width contained eight different states of Shiva, beginning with Gangadhara, where Shiva held the falling river from heaven into his locks. The other depictions on the mural included Dakshinaamoorthy where Shiva is represented as the guru of gurus, Neelakhanda where Shiva swallows poison vomited by Vasuki, which could destroy the world and Shakthi Panjaakshri, Shiva’s family consisting of Parvathy, sons Muruga and Ganesha.

Other depictions like ardha Nareeswara and Sankaranarayanan, and devotees and priests worshipping the ‘Shivalinga’, could also be seen on this mural. This mural which was made specifically for Hari Ravindranath, a resident of the City is one of the largest murals made in Kerala.

 “I saw Sasi’s works and asked him if he could work on this theme with different aspects of Shiva. Sasi has done a good job with all the imagery on the mural. The imagery of Shiva is powerful and I found the work to be powerful too,” said Hari. He further said that he had discussed the work three months ago with the artist and was extremely happy with results.

Having finished the work in 50 days, Sasi said that it was a challenging and enriching experience to do this work. “To do murals on walls is a different ball game all together and to do it on a canvas, especially such a huge one was a learning experience,” he said.

Manoj Mathasseril, one of the students who worked on this piece with Sasi, said that it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. “It’s hard to work on a huge canvas and we had to finish each panel one by one and roll the canvas after it was done, to progress to the next panel. It was a hard task but a very fruitful job,” said Manoj. To see the work at the end was the most satisfying feeling in his life, added Manoj.

Visitors at the exhibition were surprised and appreciated the artists for their artwork. “When the work was unveiled, there was a perfect silence for a few minutes,” said Prutha Narke, a co-ordinator with Alliance Francaise.

She added, “It could be the size of the work or the fact that there were different stories depicted in the mural that left everyone awed and impressed.”