In stones and shells

KOCHI: Palakkad-based artist Sreeja Vijayakumar is a free spirit anchored in art. She has been an artist for nearly 15 years and dabbles with multiple mediums in her paintings. “I have always loved exploring art and its ways and make my own mark in the field. I have centred my entire life around that,” she says. But like many artists, Covid has spelt bad luck to her artistic endeavours as well. “All the major projects I put together are now stagnated and there are little resources left to invest on another project,” she says. Sreeja is now running virtual art lessons for over 15 students to get through the pandemic days. 

This year, Sreeja had put together an exhibition in March at Ente Bhoomi Art Center, named Kakkothi, christened after the remarkable character from the 1988 film Kakkothikkavile Appooppan Thaadikal. The title is especially relevant because the collection was made out of unique shells that she collected from her journeys around the country with her son. Though she used to work extensively with paints and even feathers previously, working with shells was a whole different challenge. She started travelling around three years ago and collected shells from Kanyakumari to Kutch and Rameshwaram to Hyderabad. 

Cheraman Juma Masjid in Kodangallur was the highlight of this exhibition. It is the oldest mosque in India featuring local architecture and took Sreeja nearly 10 kilos of shells and two months to recreate it. She also made models of Padmanabhaswamy temple and the Vadakkunnathan temple in Thrissur. She had to individually segregate the shells based on size, shape and colour and place them in the frame.

Unfortunately, the second wave toppled Sreeja’s plans of making them economically viable. All those frames still remain in Kochi, and Sreeja has been unable to transfer them to Palakkad. “I am planning to donate the model of Cheraman Juma Masjid in Kodangallur to the mosque authorities as an offering. That frame seems like it belongs there. But with the rest, finding buyers during these times is hard. There is also the confusion over transportation because these pieces are very delicate and can break at the slightest tension,” she says. 

With her, Sreeja also has a collection of impressive stone art, done on single-cut stones. Traditional Indian styles like Madhubani, Warli, Kangra, Mughal art and others have been intricately drawn on each piece of stone that she collected with a lot of effort from multiple beaches. Black Cudappa stones, pieces from Hirakund in Odisha and those from Chaliyar river in Kerala have found a place in Sreeja’s collection.  Her feather art exhibitions from 2016 had made it to Limca Book Of Records too.