Artist Om Soorya has always been fascinated with lights. As a child, the temples in his hometown in Kerala, that were always lit up with lamps, got his attention.
As he grew up, this fascination only got stronger and eventually started showing up on his canvases. Now, with his art show at Kalakriti Art Gallery — The Luminous Twilights: Infinite Unknown and Ineffable — he brings this fascination to life with paints.
“Lights have been part of my art since the last 15 years when I first started painting,” says Soorya, who studied at the University of Hyderabad in 2003.
Soorya says his fascination with lights started as he was brought up in a place where lights played an important role.
“All the temples in Kerala are lit up with lamps in the evening and that lends an aura of its own. Then you also have traditions and rituals where light is given prominence. Take the ritual Theyyam, for instance. It sees dancers play with a lot of fire. These were little instances and memories that stayed in my mind and that’s how I started incorporating lights in my work,” says Soorya, who adds that lights are a reflection of spirituality in his life.
In the current show that has 14 artworks on display, a mix of installations and paintings, you also can’t miss how the monuments are shaped like stupas. “Kerala and Buddhism have had a long connection, but over the years that has diminished, through this show, I am trying to reconstruct that connection,” says Soorya who relocated to Kerala two years back.
Another element that comes across in the works is that of uncertainty. “That zone of time between night and day — twilight — is what appeals to me. There is so much uncertainty that no one knows if it is day or night and that’s what I want to show through my work. I want people to go back with that feeling,” says Soorya.
