May 18 2024 to Jun 02 2024 11 a.m.

EVENT HAS ENDED

Where

MKF Museum of Art

55/1 Isha villa, Lavelle road 560001

Event Description

“ Divine Nature gave the fields, human art built the cities.”
- Marcus Terentius Varro

Footsteps resound and reverberate against large structures that bind a burgeoning city together. The maze of connecting roads, the ever-changing topography, the experience of interesting interactions amid humanity, and the city lights at sundown attract. Many have opted to deal with the gamut of a pulsating city, coming from the serene surroundings of a rural setting. Metaphorically one foot forward in an urban setting is quite challenging for the individual who has an egalitarian outlook in life, to deal with differences in different aspects of living in Man and Nature.

What is the emotive resonance that pulls the urbanite into the memetic patterns of an urban landscape? There is a yearning for success and opportunities that is apparent in the expanse dotted with towering buildings and yet a yearning for the peace and simplicity that was left behind in a rural background.

The Yin and Yang perspective is seen oscillating in compositions by Hemant Kumar, Nandesha S, Rani Rekha and Venugopal
V G.
Hemant Kumar spends a considerable amount of time in the wilderness as a wildlife photographer, and also in cities, to imbibe a “profound understanding of the destruction happening around”. On an introspective angle to his renditions, are concerns based on the ‘concrete jungle’, once the sanctuary of wildlife, a stark reminder of the senseless denudation of forests in man’s quest for progress. He engages the viewer using man-made materials, to reflect on the dark side of a materialistic world, and yet, he portrays positivity for our environment, using natural materials to reflect on the aspect.

Rani Rekha with her strong lines portrays a sense of belonging in an urban scenario, which is apparent in her expressive compositions, that is free-flowing in her thought process. Fostering a dialogue with the viewer with her pictorial vocabulary, her love for the urban life is apparent along with her fear of modern technology and man-made decisions that impact lives, causing “long-term problems and already causing disasters”. Every city dweller is eventually striving to build their world.

Nandesha S delves into the abstraction of his thoughts that breathe into our psyche through his unique style of creations. Inspired and delving into the Japanese culture of order and their ability to calm, amid natural catastrophes claiming cities, his works are the speculative essence of “collapse and recovery” and also that of “conflict and change”. Through the compositional clarity of his works, he aspires to ‘create’ situations and interactions that can “heal and reclaim”.

Venugopal V G is known for his ‘out-of-the-box thought process’, and has created a “specific visual language incorporating and combining mundane images and metaphors”. He views the city of his dwelling Bengaluru, as an ‘outsider’ (coming from a rural atmosphere) and has over the years, observed the multi-layered mosaic of challenges, and opportunities in the co-existence of the conservative and the modern, in a fast-changing topography of the urban landscape.

Four established artists of Karnataka, in their unique styles of expressing, create impressions of observation, a feeling, or an emotion to present ‘One Foot Forward’.