Romancing the Silkworm

HYDERABAD:  The idea of transforming oneself into another seems to be at the core of mankind’s desire. The intensity of this desire is generally and strongly endorsed mostly by children but invariably by the artist community who creates that magic with their art. Kumara Swamy Pashikanti is one amongst them. He applies the medium of art to transmit himself into the being of a silkworm to experience the process of life from yet another stand. Born and brought up in a community of weavers his urge to expand out from his being gives his art a meaning to explore life from another stand, and he chooses selflessness and giving. 

His solo exhibition Cocooned Mutations is a statement of how and what he feels about his art. Says he: “An intense preoccupation with my family’s tradition of weaving is reflected in the works I present. The transformation of my face into becoming an insect’s is suggestive of the intensity with which I study the realities from where I come from.

The sacrifice of a silkworm is to make something beautiful for us, humans; an inspiration for me. Lost in thought, I find myself entering its body and try to see what it feels to be in a cocoon, almost ready to break off and be free, but fate intervenes and that freedom is to never be achieved. In this big wide city, at times, I play with the idea of moulding my being into that of an insect. And what better an insect than the selfless silk-worm. It is metamorphosis; it’s a transformation to break away from a known reality to an imagined realm.”

Autobiographical in content, the works display an intense romance between the artist and the silkworm. The portraits of the artists, and sometimes the neutral form of the protagonist, lovingly submit the self to the process of metamorphosis. Therefore, the drama of the process is made public where the silk and the song of love also involve the onlooker into this landscape of romance. 

Although trained to be a printmaker, a choice once again rooted in his stint as a commercial screen printer, Kumara Swamy amazes his spectator by his lithographs, etchings, woodcuts and relief printing. Born and brought up in Chinnoor, Mancherial district, he later his masters from the Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. Currently, he lives and works in Hyderabad.Cocooned Mutations is on display at ICONART gallery until October 17.