While critics feel that artist Saravanan Parasuraman’s works have a deeper meaning of Vedantic philosophies of self-realisation, the artist says, “It’s all about the common man’s everyday life.” But it so happens that this Chennai-based artist’s execution of ideas and concepts is so brilliant that the art actually has the quality of simplistically portraying even the most abstract thoughts.
Fresh off his first international show in Miami, Saravanan says that he always sticks close to the conviction that “ideas should drive the choice of media and not the other way around.” “I displayed five installations in various media at the FIU College of Architecture and Arts Miami Beach Urban Studios at Miami Beach, Florida. These works were very different as they were bigger installations and the space allowed people to interact with the art,” says the 32-year-old artist about his February 2014 show.
Saravanan received his BFA from the Government College of Fine Arts, Chennai in 2004 and his MFA from the same institution in 2006. When it came to practicing art, he began to build a body of work by conceptualising an idea and then choosing an appropriate media to suit the expression and articulation.
The artist’s studio is populated with ball bearings, sand, silicone, fibreglass, wood and wires. He also works with graphite, archival print on paper and has even experimented with video installations and other new media. Among his successful series was Accumulations, which dealt with how we gather our “selves”. The artist’s works are often deciphered on the lines of an enquiry into the nature of reality to even a discourse on the ‘I’ in the context of larger forces.
Gearing up for a group show in Hyderabad’s Kalakriti Art Gallery, Sravanan says, “I am showcasing sculptures made of fiberglass and steel balls. While I choose to work with fibreglass because it has an everyday quality to it as to how the common man views the world, steel balls are high in aesthetic quality.”
He adds, “When I have shows in galleries, I generally display work with steel balls as they are easily sold due to their appeal.” But the artist insists that there aren’t ever any expectations from cities or markets in terms of sales. And rightly so, since Saravanan enjoys a good amount of appreciation, especially in cities like Delhi and Mumbai.
