Teasing Joseph’s statues combine mechanics with poetry

A small ear carved on a circular board three feet in diameter is a sign of artist van Gogh’s attempt at self-mutilation. a speaker in the other ear, which recites the poem Van Gogh by American poet Jean Murray Walker. In the installation ‘Obscenities in the Eye of the Beholder’, a video is embedded in the iris of an open eye. In ‘How Birds Erase Boundaries’ there are 20 birds in a cage. The sculpture revolves around a musical symphony composed by the artist.

These works and other works are part of Tensing Joseph’s solo shows now at Durbar Hall Art Gallery, Kochi and J.J. in Dallas in the US. Running together at the Eric Johnson Central Library, “the two exhibitions are the same,” says Mr. Joseph, director of the Raja Ravi Varma Center of Excellence for the Visual Arts, Mavelikara. The shows connect continents and the works serve as a bridge for global literature and art.

The title of the exhibition in Kochi is ‘What you think is not important to me’. Four kinetic sculptures out of 10 sculptures and five paintings on display Kumble or White Wood is distinctive for their combined use of multimedia, mechanics and motion. “My new kinetic sculptures are based on new materials tested in the evolutionary directions of art history and also from direct experiential observations,” says the artist.

In ‘The End and the Beginning’, A small fish draws a school of small fish. A central light projects the shadow of a moving fish on the wall. This author is inspired by Federico Fellini, says Mr. Joseph Capricorn, “I recreated surrealism in the film,” he says. Other sculptures are traditional reliefs in wood. Academic and environmentalist Madhav Gadgil appears in a large 16×6 ft painting along with images of the habitats he has built against environmental degradation. The artist says that the work was a reaction to the 2018 Kerala floods.

The show will conclude on November 16.

‘Obscenity is in the eye of the beholder’ by Tensing Joseph | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement