New York gallery showcases the work of Kerala artist Tom Vattakuzhy

Tom Vattakuzhy’s solo show ‘Song of the Dusk’ on at a gallery in New York captures the loneliness and uncertainty of the pandemic times

A gradual sense of disquiet begins to build as you gaze into artist Tom Vattakuzy’s stunning painting,‘Song of the Dusk’. A burial is underway — a mound of soil occupies the centre of the frame with a wreath laid beneath it. The church looms behind, its imposing white walls contrasting the tangerine tones of a setting sun. People, wearing masks pulled down to their chins, stand around in sepulchral silence. 

The 2020 oil-on-canvas work pits the staggering beauty of life against the transience of it. It captures the fear, the uncertainty and the festering sadness of pandemic deaths. Though he does not usually paint a series on a preset theme, he is moved by situations and experiences that he encounters. Tom’s works often carry untold emotional resonances of such experiences. This particular work could have originated from a sense of personal loss, says Tom, who lost his father around the time, though not to COVID-19. 

The work is currently on show at Aicon Contemporary, a gallery specialising in works of emerging Indian and Pakistani artists, at New York. Six of Tom’s works are on show at his first solo exhibition abroad.

Isolation and loneliness seem to be the thread connecting all his works at the show. A profound sense of silence pervades each painting. “In a sense, loneliness is our living reality today,” says Tom. “Pestilence or not, we live in solitude, distant and adrift in our own worlds pushed further apart by technology.” In the ‘Girl with Bubbles’, a little girl is shown playing with bubbles, the air around her wordless and heavy.  

Tom is continuously inspired by his immediate surroundings and memory. “The church in the painting is inspired by one of the oldest churches in the area where I live. The hilly landscape in the painting is inspired by the sight I see from my house. Though it used to be green in my childhood memories, it is abused by rock quarrying today. My works are an abridged and evocative compilation of memories and realities,” he says.

As a voracious consumer of early Renaissance art, memories of it often seep into his practice subconsciously, says Tom. “Though you could call my works realistic, it aims to go beyond, transporting the viewer to worlds beyond. I am moved by emotion and my work is a constant exploration of the inner realms of being.”

Art for Tom is a meditative exercise; he prefers to work in solitude. It is also as political as it is personal. The ordinary and those in the fringes find space in his narrative. He questions religious concerns in subtle ways — he paints the angel atop the spire with a broken wing, with concrete and metal sticking out.