Tensing Joseph Principal of College of Fine Arts, Thiruvananthapuram.
As the principal of College of Fine Arts, Thiruvananthapuram, Tensing Joseph often interacts with students. No wonder that when we visit his exhibition “Earthworms” at the Triveni Kala Sangam in Delhi, he was engrossed in a discussion with a group of youngsters. “I would want to spend as much time as I can in the gallery, interacting with visitors, noting their feedback,” we heard him tell them.
The display is rooted in Joseph’s own memories of his growing-up years in Idukki. Belonging to an agrarian family — his parents were farmers — Joseph often watched peasants toiling in the fields. “I base my compositions on agrarian history and practices, issues such as climate change and global warning,” says the 55-year-old.
In the current display, Joseph turns them into his protagonists. If in The Peasant’s Dream from Yesterday Night, he is seen tilling the soil on a canvas that is also occupied by a buffalo and sickle, in another mixed-media work, A Dream of the Unknown, a woman has her eyes shut in pain, surrounded by the tools she often uses in the field. In The Last Peasant, he paints the peasant as a bare skeleton. “This is based on a sketch by Leonardo da Vinci. You can also see the skull of a deer, which were used for agricultural activities. I have used many tools from the ancient period to recreate those elements,” says Joseph, who last had a solo in Delhi in 2010.
The titular work, in mud and charcoal, has worms scrambling in soil, and another work, Disappears, has insects and worms on a canvas with brown of the ground.
“By using ample fertilisers and pesticides, we are denying them a chance to survive. These are also part of our habitat,” notes Joseph.
Fittingly, the concern is also reflected in the medium, as Joseph uses clay and mud, materials close to the earth, in his mixed-media works. He attributes the material to the fine mud used in the making the ethnic Aranmula kannadi (handmade mirror), with adhesive from plants. “In 2014, I got involved in a campaign against the proposed Aranmula airport project where several artists had gathered to register their protest. That was when I first used mud as a metaphor,” says Joseph.
The exhibition at Triveni Kala Sangam is on till February 6