I Know What I Am Doing: Curated by P S Jalaja

I Know What I Am Doing

In the complex socio-political and cultural backdrop, the exhibition "I Know What I Am Doing" is a deliberate declaration by artists of their own agency, consciousness, and responsibility. 

This title is simultaneously a disclosure and a provocation. It reflects the engagement that artists maintain with their chosen mediums and ideas. In an era where art practice is surrounded by market forces, digital velocity, and institutionalization, this exhibition brings to the fore artists who operate with a clear sense of purpose. Their creations are not coincidences, but precise stances. 

From emerging young artists to accomplished senior artists, the exhibition brings together a diverse range of artistic voices. This gathering of generations paves the way for deep dialogues concerning continuities and changes in contemporary Indian art.

The conceptual vision of the exhibition is that young artists engage with new experiments and enthusiasm shaped by post-liberalization realities and digital culture, while senior artists engage with the present by giving new meanings to the contemporary through historical memories and long-term political engagements. Artworks are selected based on three criteria: political consciousness, medium-specific insight, and conceptual precision. These creations converse with subjects such as power, labor, environment, caste, gender, memories, migration, nation, and existence. Here, the deployment of mediums is not merely a matter of stylistic precision; rather, they become methodology, metaphor, and critique. Conceptual frameworks are not merely abstract ideas; instead, they are grounded in life conditions and history. 

Instead of providing a unilateral narrative, 'I Know What I Am Doing' strives for an open dialogue. It embraces the diversities and contradictions within contemporary Indian art. This exhibition venue becomes a critical space where different art idioms meet, disagree, and collide.

When claiming, "I am conscious of what I am doing," artists underline intentionality in their action rather than their supremacy. They recognize the challenges of making art in the present times. Beyond mere expression, this exhibition invites viewers to see art as a political and social thinking process.

Passing through the works of 17 South Indian artists engaged in art practices across various parts of India, this group exhibition titled 'I Know What I Am Doing' develops the possibility of a collective dialogue by weaving together the factors that connect yet maintaining the distinctness of their artistic creations.

T. V. Santhosh's mastery over his medium and his distinct approach to his artwork set his canvas apart. In the strongest artistic idiom, his works examine complex problems faced by the contemporary world, such as violence, injustice, war, and terrorism. Exhibited in the "I Know What I Am Doing" exhibition, watercolour paintings like 'Protagonist and his Path of Divine Intervention - II' (Watercolour on paper) and 'Protagonist and his Clock of Apocalypse' share a similar conceptual vein. Santhosh's artworks mark the complex lived realities through which the violence- and injustice-ridden world we live in passes, in his own language, while reserving a space for hope and healing.

Vinu V. V.’s works are attempts to discover local memories and their historical backgrounds. Passing through them, these works make us ponder how such memories persist in contemporary experiences through imagery rooted in our visions.

Both artworks, 'Sheemakonna'(Gliricidia Sepium) and 'Wiper', converse with the audience by recalling V. D. Rajappan and Kalabhavan Mani. These works recall V. D. Rajappan—who critiqued and subverted mainstream narratives humorously through parody songs and Kadhaprasangam by attributing human emotions to animals and objects—and Kalabhavan Mani, who sought to highlight marginalized people and the politics of the working class through his songs and acting. International contemporary textile artist Lakshmi Madhavan, through her work 'i do, i undo, i redo', analyzes the politics of gender, ritual, labor, tradition, and continuous labor in her unique artistic style. Focusing on Kerala's famous 'Kasavu', the artist unites material culture, feminist memories, and collective creation in her artwork.

Similarly, multidisciplinary artist Indu Antony, who works between Bangalore and Kerala, explores feminist stances and the presence of gendered bodies in public spaces. Her notable 2021 work, 'Ponnu Pole Valarthiyavala',(Raised Like Gold) discusses the expectations imposed by society on young girls and the burden of traditional models. In this artwork, cyanotypes of childhood photos, pieces of advice given by society, and the latitude-longitude coordinates of a place are stitched together using the artist's own strands of hair and presented inside a jewellery box. Through this personal narrative, Indu Antony attempts to expose how the entire society resides within a woman's body and mind. Delhi-based artist George Martin P. J.’s artistic expressions address social norms and existing fears by rearranging everyday domestic objects and imagery through his unique style. 'The Loaded Smile' is an acrylic painting on canvas that analyzes the mismatches between digital personalities and volatile realities against an urban backdrop. While the repeating smiling emojis in the painting reflect manufactured happiness and industrial destruction, this work makes the viewer think about how positivity becomes a shield masking anxiety and stress.Priyanka Aelay, a visual artist born and raised in Hyderabad, Telangana, adopts a minimalist approach to Indian miniature art, paying special attention to creating contemporary works encompassing abundant flora and fauna. Inviting viewers into a world of her own creative impulses beautifully woven into familiar and unfamiliar forms, her artworks transform the known and the unknown, mimicking the 'real' and renewing it in her own style.

The acrylic-on-linen painting series 'Fly Me to the Moon - here to the Moon River' can be understood as embodying intelligence, adaptability, and intuitive wild curiosity through small, glowing white foxes playing and observing amidst leafy details in the context of contemporary art. 

Priyanka's artworks put forward a contemporary feminist perspective on the ancient Indian landscape. Conversing through nature, memory, and the topography of the inner self, her works resonate with the power and complexity of life by creating a space of refuge, mystery, and vibrant vitality.

Baroda-based Indian visual artist Adarsh Baji deconstructs traditional views on disability through his painting series 'Strength in My Journey'. Rewriting them into a visual language that supports strength and movement rather than his limitation, the message he conveys through his artistic life is not about weakness, but finding resilience and dignity from the conditions life provides and continuing one's journey courageously. In the larger painting, a boat depicted against a map background, a walking stick leaned against it, and a bird standing with wings spread above it, alongside the linear depiction of a footprint filling the background in the smaller painting, are presented in these works by transforming them into symbols of strength, self-sufficiency, and determination.

K. P. Reji, an active presence in Indian visual art for over three decades, recreates the daily life of common people and folk styles on his canvases through bold and rounded forms; his paintings titled 'Today... In History', which share geopolitical ideas about the politics of the modern state and society and controls through simple visuals, are prepared drawing inspiration from M. Mukundan's novel 'Delhi: A Soliloquy. Reji uses his unique style to highlight the contradictions and struggles in the lives of Malayali migrant workers in Delhi through the images of common people amidst the grandeur of the city.

Anupama Alias Anil's latest series of works, 'The Shared Quiet', focuses on depicting transitional phases and vulnerable moments in women's lives. Rooted in the artist's own quiet observations of life, this series explores the silent ecosystem of womanhood. She incorporates into her works the unspoken understandings and resilient rhythms where women support, back, and sustain each other. Anupama clarifies in her art note that this is a visual meditation of society, reminding us that quiet spaces between individuals are not filled with silence, but with an invisible and eternal language of collective living.

Time, geography, and ephemeral beauty are the key common elements used in Anupama's paintings. Their placement in each work marks the passage of time. In these latest works, 'The Shared Quiet', she visualizes how women's solidarity operates through subtle and layered contributions. Through details such as delicate flowers using transparent rice paper and cotton, and paper washes, it reflects a shared gesture, an understood silence, and a piece of collected knowledge. Through these silent additions moving beyond the physical realm, Anupama's works function as personal experiences merging into a larger, harmonious totality. Greeshma C., an emerging artist from the new generation in Kerala's contemporary visual art, explores how systems of violence and fear gradually erase individual identities, reducing humans to unrecognizable anonymous bodies within large socio-political structures.

Greeshma's latest artwork titled 'Continuum 44', which uses colagraph print, copper foil, acrylic, and mixed media on canvas, also powerfully questions the socio-political systems that normalize violence and marginalization through texture, repetition, and materiality. 

Siji Krishnan's works, operating from Kerala, set her apart in Indian contemporary visual art due to her presentation style and mastery over the medium. Siji's art unfolds a world of creation that is clear and luminous as well as ambiguous, imaginative, and experiential for viewers.

Through her visual language, she has portrayed the depth of human relationships and memories over time. The artwork titled 'wallets', created in paper pulp and water medium, is a continuation of this concept; based on small pictures and memories of loved ones hidden inside wallets, Siji's works explore the emotional connection between personal objects and memories.

Sanam C. Narayanan, a native of Cherai, Ernakulam, who completed his BFA and MFA in sculpture from RLV College, Thrippunithura, is an artist who developed his own style in painting alongside the sculptural medium. Each of his works fulfills his words: "My art practices are shaped from my organic connection with nature." Drawing from his sculptural background, he attempts to transform the emotional dimensions of spaces and the atmosphere they create into two-dimensional forms and assemblages of objects. Sanam prefers to express emotional experiences like sadness, wonder, and loneliness through a specific atmosphere instead of symbolic imagery.

Various trees, ground-creeping plants, snow, old dwellings, and paths where light and shadow fall are all used by him to create a magical relationship between nature and memories. This quest, stepping up into unknown mountains and paths, helps rethink habits that confine humans to comfort zones.

While the socio-political aspects of art are considered, this practice is primarily a tribute to things that perish. Sanam underlines that recognizing this very secret leads one forward and awakens a love for life and art.

Alamu Kumarasan's artworks are shaped in her own style through textured canvases synthesizing fabric, thread, embroidery, and paint. In the work titled 'The Legacy of Melody Dorcas'-Those who touched my Life' presented in this exhibition, Alamu reflects the vibrant personality and inner strength of Melody Dorcas, an artist who fought for equality and social justice, in a portrait form. Alamu says this creation, embracing pluralism and unity, is a tribute to her inclusive stance.

'The Same Destination' paintings are exploring how humans complicate simple things and how paths to truth differ. Embroidered marks surrounding the forms represent our countless thoughts and experiences. Alamu says her creative process is slow, like the movement of a turtle, giving each creation adequate time and attention. As clarified in the concept 'While it takes shape', her art creations and life as an artist evolve as carrying the marks of time, thoughts, and changes.

Sculptor Raghunathan K., one of the founding members of the Indian Radical Painters and Sculptors Association, expresses the complexities and internal conflicts of human life in his unique style. He presents the collisions between personal desires and social laws, and the changes they create in personalities, through bizarre human-animal forms and expressions. These forms manage to evoke humor, wonder, and unease simultaneously in viewers.

His sculptures created in various mediums like wood, fiberglass, terracotta, and bronze expose how contradictions in the outside world affect the human mind and the isolation of contemporary humans caught between past memories and future expectations. This conceptual clarity and political awareness continue in his sculptures 'Walking GANDHI',' Six Sandwiches 'and 'Youth Looking Galaxy' included in the 'I Know What I Am Doing' exhibition, as well as in his notable drawing series 'Meanwhile' and 'Anecdotes'. 

Marking her life in art as a painter, performance artist, and activist, emerging artist Jaya P. S. from Kerala creates paintings that explore how the family system conceptualized by society attempts to confine women's lives in various ways.

We live in an era where the caste system and gender equality are widely discussed across all spheres of society. Although various movements have successfully fostered awareness about gender inequality in many areas, the family system continues largely unchanged. Jaya states that her artworks examine the experiences of women within patriarchal family structures prevailing in society and the complexities of exploitation, oppression, and domination hidden behind the idealized concept of the 'holy family'. Jaya expresses her ideas through various mediums like paintings, performance, and artivism in the exhibition I Know What I Am Doing. Her watercolor paintings 'Trophies and traumas' and 'Still life series 2' are based on this concept.

Transisters Collective, the first collective of performance artists among women visual artists in the history of Kerala , combines visual art and performance to raise awareness about gender discrimination issues and feminist politics in society. Through their art presentations, this collective draws viewers' attention to the challenges faced by gender minorities today in

asserting their space, rights, and bodily autonomy. Rooted in feminist ideas, this inclusive collective supports critical voices of women's lives and creativity through their collective performances. Kavitha Balakrishnan, a member of Transisters Collective and practicing as an artist, art historian, and art educator, conceptualizes a lecture performance titled "CHAIR OF ONE’S OWN" . This intends to dismantle the metaphors of power ingrained in imagining art and its gendered history. The lecture, paired with parallel acts of dismantling, shares the personal, collective and trans- locational memories of being women, artists, and historically provincialized individuals. It addresses their presence and absence in positions of authority while exploring sisterhoods and creative strategies developed for artistic survival within the imagined "chair of one's own." The structure of the lecture and the performance of dismantling envision a feminist classroom, raising a fundamental question about how authority functions in all walks of life. 

Sujith S. N.'s canvases from Kerala are distinguished by his mastery over the medium. The presence of a muted palette alongside occasionally emerging bright colors is a feature of his artworks. The uncontrolled growth of cities and the resulting unsettling sense of alienation often emerge in his works. Recalling famous German artist Anselm Kiefer's quote, "Landscapes are not innocent. In every landscape... you can see marks of certain tragedies ... along with certain hopes," Sujith S. N. marks his artworks as follows:

"For the past few years, I have been exploring landscape not merely as a geographical record, but as a carrier of memory, history, displacement, violence, and hope. I am interested in how it impacts us mentally and how these experiences can be evoked through minimal forms, color, light, and scale. Working in water-based media allows me to discover new possibilities within these landscapes, where even minor errors can turn into moments of revelation."

P. S. Jalaja