At KYNKYNY in Bengaluru, Visual Disobedience brings together the work of Yuvan Bothysathuvar, S Ravi Shankar, Saravanan Parasuraman and Ganesh Selvaraj from September 19 to October 17. The group exhibition explores line, geometry, colour, form and material, with paper taking on forms that challenge the way we understand flatness, depth and space. For curator and KYNKYNY co-founder Vivek Radhakrishnan, the title itself points to the experience of encountering the works, where perception does not always behave as expected.

“The use of the word ‘Disobedience’ was not intended to suggest that a line disobeys the space it is meant to define,” Radhakrishnan says. Instead, the title was conceived as a play on two ideas. “When you are face to face with many of these artworks, our eyes get confused by what they are looking at. What we perceive is not necessarily what we see. There is a sort of dissonance between the eyes and the brain, and that’s what makes these works so fascinating when seen in person.”

The second meaning of disobedience, he says, is about rebellion and moving away from the accepted. “This is how I personally view this group of artists from Chennai. They have stepped away from known and largely accepted mediums and techniques and created their own rules, and therefore their own distinct identities.”


Paper plays a central role in that process. While it is conventionally associated with a flat surface, the artists in the exhibition use it to create depth and volume through different techniques. “The flatness that we associate with paper is challenged by creating depth,” Radhakrishnan says. This happens through three-dimensional structures, translucent papers that reveal layers, tonal variations and shapes and patterns that accentuate volume.

The works also reflect a contemporary relationship with the legacy of the Madras Art Movement. Radhakrishnan describes the movement of the 1950s as one that “brought an Indian, or I should say South Indian, identity to modernism.” At first glance, the works in Visual Disobedience may not necessarily appear rooted in India. “They could be from anywhere, and the art certainly has its place anywhere in the world,” he says.

Yet he sees a strong commonality in the use of geometry and symmetry. “Both of which have always been defining characteristics of traditional Indian culture and across the arts,” he says. In particular, he points to radial symmetry and the mirroring of patterns across centrally intersecting lines as bringing “a traditional Indian flavour to these otherwise very worldly works.”

There is also a shift in how contemporary artists engage with influences and materials. Unlike the earlier movement, Radhakrishnan feels that the artists today are “not shy of using ideas or materials that may not be from here.” At the same time, “the inspirations, narratives and thought processes that drive the work are certainly strongly rooted in Chennai.”

What connects the four practices is not uniformity but difference. “What makes this curation interesting is how the four practices use the same materials with such different expressions, similar techniques with totally different outcomes, and common ideologies to tell such contrasting stories,” he says.

For Radhakrishnan, these connections point to something larger taking shape in Chennai. “All of this is what makes me think of what is happening in Chennai today as a movement,” he says. He sees “collaboration, conversation, confrontation and appreciation” between the practices, qualities that he believes have historically characterised art movements that have endured.

In an environment saturated with images, he believes abstraction can still command attention precisely because it asks viewers to stop and look again. “I believe that abstraction most certainly has its place in art today, even though the world is saturated with visual information,” he says. “What is remarkable is seeing art that makes you stop, look again, and experience something new within all this saturation.”

The physicality of the works is equally important. Radhakrishnan points to “an incredibly high level of craftsmanship and artistry” across the practices. These works, he says, are “not merely images, as they may appear on screen or print media,” but often complex structures and assemblies that can only be made by hand. “And that brings a whole other level of wonder and amazement.”


Ultimately, he hopes the exhibition encourages viewers to reconsider what materials and artistic practices can do. “What I hope viewers see differently is how many possibilities there are with materials when they are used differently,” he says. For him, the artists demonstrate that there is no need to remain confined to traditional mediums and techniques, and that artists should be willing to experiment without fear of judgement.

He also emphasises that such experimentation is not instantaneous. “Complex innovation only happens with repeated and dedicated work over decades,” he says, while noting that profound ideas can be expressed through new and distinctive forms.

For Radhakrishnan, that process can also be collective. “In a movement, it is okay to be inspired by one’s peers, and it is okay to allow overlaps,” he says, “because ultimately, they build mountains that change the landscape.”

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