‘The object of art is not to reproduce reality, but to create a reality of the same intensity.’– Alberto Giacometti.
Shibu Arakkal has been an artist more than a photographer. One can justify the above statement because every photograph of Shibu has been artistically conceived and executed. Shibu’s works have many admirers and were a part of the prestigious Florence Biennale as well. This solo show of Shibu, comes after a steady wait of five years during which he conceptualised and created impeccable works of class. His father’s demise earlier last year did leave a mark on him which is why here he is dedicating this show to the legend Yusuf Arakkal. The four-square circle of Shibu’s life and the crisscross of many years of his living, meet to shape an entire, around the sunless chasm of his horizon.
Shibu Arakkal
Sibu says, “My crossbreed reality and the resultant artistic work are mind boggling philosophical stories of life, lived out and about and less voyaged. Of dusting the earth and grass off from my falls that made splits in my being. The veins to my spirit. That I cherished naively and live doing so is not a thing of disappointment. That despite my losses I stand tall, is not a matter of indignity but rather that I still embrace life. The show comes after a gap of five years and its worth the wait actually.”
Shibu’s horizons are dry mirages of vivid dreams that course through his sinews. What’s more, what he sees are superimposed projections of dreams and reality two parts that frame a double life, in a fight for faith and the unchanging.
Harish
The quintessence of the present series titled “Four” is a photographic interpretation of his emotional voyage through the most recent four many years of his life. Evolving out of a philosophical thought on horizons, this assemblage of work acts as a poetic and visual story of the dualistic idea of his life, multiplied over the four many years of time spent living it.
Realising facts of this very moment as much as questioning the past and the future, the series interprets Shibu’s beliefs, his battles, fights, misfortunes and follows his emotional footprints through settings that have continually tested his existence and his sheer unwillingness to accommodate.
The series, which has developed in the course of recent years has seen the shores of the Pacific sea, the Arabian sea, and also the wild scene of the USA and of that which is native to him, his country, India.
The works from the series are divided groups of semi hyperrealistic mirrored montages, impressionistic single remain solitary photographic works and ultra-minimalist iPhonographic mirrored triptychs.
Shibu’s works have always stunned the viewers for their artistic and aesthetic finesse, this show of Shibu is phenomenal both in terms of magnitude and artistry. The gallery owner Mrs Renu George has collaborated excellently with Shibu to curate a show which is worthy to be called world class.
The show is on at Gallery Time and Space until the 24th of this month.
— The writer is an art expert and curator.
