Art exhibition on impact of human attitude on environment under way

The event, hosted by The Banyan and The Other Identity Fellowship, will go on till July 28

Birds, faces, the earth and the impact of the human attitude on the environment are among the many images and themes that feature in Preetha Mahadevan’s paintings, which are a part of a limited edition display titled ‘A Brush With Madness.’

Hosted by The Banyan and The Other Identity Fellowship at the Apparao Galleries, her work has been displayed as the first of a series of exhibitions ‘Musings of the Mind’, inspired by the Art Brut and the Outsider Art Movement.

“A lot of my art is a reflection of themes that recur in my dreams and things I constantly think about. Birds, for instance, are a recurring theme, and I often imagine they congregate in large numbers and have fierce conversations about humans and what they have done to the environment,” Ms. Preetha said.

As an artist with a lived experience of bipolar disorder, she speaks about art as a therapeutic agent, and how it has helped her over the last few years. “The first step for anyone is to be open and to be inspired. It is important to ask for help, and I always wonder why there is a need to be so secretive about mental health,” she said.

Her book A Brush With Madness has a collection of 60 paintings, which she said she created specially for The Banyan. “The twenty paintings on display here as well as my other work are up for sale and all proceeds from will go to The Banyan,” she said.

DMK MP Kanimozhi released Ms. Preetha’s book. “Humanity has always tried to reach out through art and music in the past and continues to do so. People sometimes ask what the point of art is, and I believe it is the core of our existence. It keeps us going, helps us understand ourselves better, introspect and reach out,” Ms Kanimozhi said.

Speaking about how they were inspired by the Art Brut movement and hoped to work with many more artists in the coming months, Vandana Gopikumar, co-founder, The Banyan, said they would not stick to traditional art forms. “Using the Art Brut phenomena, we are trying to bring a sense of balance and reality to express the views of persons with disabilities, mental illnesses, the homeless, the disenfranchised, among others. We are not just looking at this as outsider art but also as outsider thought,” she explained.