Art as atonement. For former Chief Secretary K. Jayakumar, there was perhaps no other way to react to the brutal murder of the tribal youth Madhu by a mob at Attappady recently. The atonement is not just at an individual level, but for the collective failure of the society, in which such a shocking act has taken place.
‘Akakkazhcha’ is what he calls the exhibition of his paintings, which opened at the Suryakanthi Art Gallery near Sasthamangalam on Monday evening. It is an apt name, for the questions regarding such acts of cruelty have to go deeper, into the kind of mentality which leads to it.
“I don’t how someone who looks at Madhu’s helpless face can even think of beating him. This exhibition of paintings is my penance,” says Mr.Jayakumar.
The show has 25 of his paintings done over the past few years. The proceeds from the sale of paintings here will go to a tribal family.
“There are quite a few families, in the tribal settlements, who do not even have proper identity cards to access aid from the government. I will find one or two such families and hand over the proceeds from the show to them,” he says.
Painting came into his life, quite late, in his 50s, when he was about to freed from his official duties. Since then, he has set aside time for it, painting mostly abstract inner scapes. The first of the exhibitions was held in Delhi in 2006. Recently, he held two exhibitions, one at Kochi and another at Kozhikode, with the sales proceeds going to ‘Solace,’ a voluntary organisation working for children with serious illnesses.
