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Kochi based artist Zakkir Hussain is
known for his paintings that take viewers to a colourful fantasy-like
landscape. But the landscapes here don’t depict the playful or whimsical,
but takes us on a journey into a unique universe of its own. Hussain’s
universe is dense with people caught in an array of circumstances. He
challenges the established notions by unsettling the viewers through the
facets he touches upon, parallels he draws and the visual that he comes up
with that address the agony of life, structures of power and imbalance in
the society, inner conflicts, notion of self and how one identifies with the
world at large. His paintings highlight the bond between humans and nature
that manifest through the artist's incorporation of
a variety of images and influences.
“The physical expanse of the paper offers me sometimes hazardous and
unwelcoming playground where I exchange my ideas or revise my initial
responses. These revisions stand as the traces of time and movement, as
amended expressions or half-formed utterances. The paper becomes the site of
engagement with the real that is, in turn, influenced by interventions,
interruptions and negotiations with the imaginative thought process.”
states Zakkir Hussain.
What comes out of this intriguing process is the imaginative expedition Hussain embarks
upon. He touches upon uncertainties that pervade human life. He makes visual
associations between unexpected elements, often triggering a sense of shock.
The innumerable visual elements evoke deeper personal thought processes in
the viewer. Hussain’s oeuvre deals with complexities
and inner aspects of human life.
Dr. Kathleen Wyma in
her essay Zakkir Hussain Procrustean
Possibilities (The Guild:
2017) analyzes how “Zakkir Hussain has
consistently characterized his drawings as documents of his real and
imaginative journeys. In capturing a fleeting image, a snippet of sound, or
a glimpse of a passing bird, Hussain creatively
mirrors the aural and visual densities of his locality. Indeed, one can
imagine how the amalgams of animal, figure and form that pepper his drawings
reflect the dissonant snarls of congested traffic, the impatient crescendos
of vehicle horns, or the occasional bleat of goats that drift up to the
second floor windows of his Mattancherry studio. Hussain catalogues
the cadences of urban sound in every line, every amendment, smudge or
afterthought that scars the surface of his paper; however, if sound is
registered in his technique and gesture, what are we to make of his visual
motifs?”
Presented here are four seminal works by Hussain produced
at different points of time. They provide insights into the intellectual and
visual engagement of Hussain for over a decade. The
issues of displacement, disconnect between humanity and nature have come
into fore more strikingly than ever before which makes these paintings
relevant at uncertain present times, urging us to revisit them.
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