Tree of life gets a staunch crusader

The verdant forests brought it an entire world of natural wonder. Wise old trees, croaking frogs, chirping crickets, yowling wild cats, hooting owls, rustling leaves, the buzzing of bees…. it was everything Venkat Raman Singh Shyam could ask for as companions while growing up. This splendour was the best part of Sijhora village in Madhya Pradesh, where he spent many years of his life. Today, its all lost to urbanisation. Disturbed by this, he had been feeling on the edge lately, until the moment when he started pouring his thoughts on to the canvas. The result is now for everybody to see through a body of work, titled Clouds of Wings. 

The richly adorned forests have now given way to extreme aridity with patches of shrubs and grass living their last. “Global warming has shown its ugly face and we have failed to recognise it. This inner conflict reflects in my paintings,” says Shyam, adding, “I understand the need for development. I also understand the imperativeness of advancement, but I cannot rationalise all of this achieved at the cost of the climatic crisis.”

On a brightly painted red paper background, red, black, mustard and white acrylic colours give birth to The Knowledge Tree. This work shows the tree as the most important element in the aspiration of learning and acquirement of enlightment like was the case with Gautam Buddha who meditated under the Bodhi tree. “I take the focus off from the individual seeking knowledge, and place it into the ‘source’, the tree in this case, that is responsible for attaining that knowledge,” says the artist. 

Another artwork titled Bamboo Tree (acrylic on paper), depicts the ornamental value attached to plants, in this case, the bamboo. While we all like to adorn our spaces with attractive greens, we don’t think about planting them for the larger good of the world. The representation of the two cows within the vase depicts a similar sentiment. “In theory, we talk about cow worship and hang beautiful paintings of the animal, but we don’t do much to protect the ones dying on the street. It’s all about projection, whether in the case of the bamboo vase or the cows,” he shares. 

In Urban Tree, he shows the polluted nature of our earth by symbolically representing the roots of the tree as black. It insinuates the environmental doom awaiting us. 
In every painting, Shyam draws from nature and gives back to it. It’s his way of saying we emerged from nature and we will get assimilated into it.