Vikash Kalra’s drawings are a strong comment on strained contemporary relationships. The artist chats with Karan Bhardwaj about presenting hidden bruises and struggles in everyday life
The sagging lips, sulking cheeks and puffed eyes in the portraits made by Vikash Kalra embrace the sad reality of human existence today. In these drawings and paintings, there is a strong sense of pain, betrayal and melancholy. As the artist puts it, he has tried to peel off the hidden realities behind the masks. “We walk with a glorious smile but behind those sparkling cheeks, there lies pain and bruises that are well-camouflaged by people. I closely analysed a lot people and found that from within they are in pain. Instead of showing their pain, they prefer to hide it with the mask of smile. But they are overloaded with pain — pain related to themselves or others,” he says.
In Collage of Gandhi, the first two faces of Gandhi are very happy. It represents that he and other politicians are focussed at work, clear about their decisions and share simple relationships. The next two faces are thoughtful and in pain, the pain he and other politicians felt during the time of Partition. “The other two pictures represent “minimum”, that is, to adjust less in life. The rest two picture represent that whole of India is with Gandhi and the last two pictures signify to keep walking without any stop,” explains the artist.
Titled Tales from the Soul Marrow, the exhibition has some 450 drawings and 20 works on canvas. “I got the inspiration from my last exhibition, in which 35,000 people visited and around 10,000 people came and shared their things with me. I got to know each and every single person is in pain — inside pain. And so I thought of representing this through my paintings in the exhibition. It is called Tales from the Soul Marrow because the story comes from inside the marrow of the soul and what I think and observe in life,” says Kalra.
However, in contrast, the artworks also highlights the struggles and aspirations of people. “The scars on the faces signify that the people are fighters. According to me, people are dreamers and in order to achieve those dreams, they fight hard and therefore they are gifted with scars. And this is something which we see in daily life routine,” he says.
One of the collages titled, Woman and The Child, comprehends the relationship between a mother and her children. The eight drawings in that work capture various moods — mother feeding her children or taking them out for a stroll. Why did he want to present drawings in a collage modeIJ “To me, the thoughts come clicking one by one and I keep drawing and prefer to put them in a collage mode so that people can draw a story. According to me this is a unique way to tell a story to someone without using words,” he says.
Kalra calls himself a farmer and not an artist, who keeps producing new products everyday. “I put seeds and give water to my imagination and nourish it everyday. The ideas and expressions which we cannot explain through words can easily be demonstrated through paintings. Art is the most beautiful and easiest medium of interpretation,” he says. How does he comprehend human relations todayIJ “The impulsive behaviour is hampering the human relationships. There is need to stay calm and compose during a conflict. There’s definitely a lack of self-assessment among individuals,” he signs off.