Kerala On My Mind – The art of KP Pradeepkumar
In KP Pradeepkumar’s brooding, poetic landscapes, nature is not a passive backdrop but a powerful force that demands our attention
Kerala
Ancestral histories/ stories #1
This artwork titled Ancestral Histories/ stories #1 is by Saju Kunhan (b. 1983) It is one of seven works from the Home Ground series, each of which imagines a historical event connected to the artist’s ancestors. Saju Kunhan has incorporated characters into stories he has heard when he was a child by using pictures and… Read more »
Untitled (Kerala Flood)
This composition is a 2018 ‘Untitled’ work in gouache on Japanese paper by Dibin K. Thilakan (b. 1989). Created after the catastrophic 2018 Kerala floods, Dibin Thilakan’s painting obscures boundaries between land and water. The floods caused widespread displacement and damage across the state. While he highlights the helplessness of the average citizen awaiting relief… Read more »
Durbar of the Rajah of Travancore, Reception of General Outram and Staff
This coloured engraving shows an assemblage at the Travancore royal court with James Outram and his staff and Maharaja of Travancore, Uthram Thirunal Marthanda Varma (1814-1860). General James Outram was appointed as a political agent in Lucknow in 1854 and became the region’s first commissioner after the annexation of Oudh State. He was a British… Read more »
Untitled
This work from the series ‘Unborn’ by Anju Acharya (b.1992) illustrates a realistically rendered fish on rice paper. The fish appears to be preparing to give birth. The overarching themes in Acharya’s series ‘Unborn’ are birth, death, and decay. She draws on her personal pregnancy experience. She considers how this connects her to all the… Read more »
Untitled
This work from the series Unborn by Anju Acharya (b.1992), illustrates a realistically rendered skeleton of a fish. Birth, says Acharya, can only be comprehended entirely when viewed in the context of death. All in between is the process of deterioration. In this piece, she portrays how changes in nature impact the body of living… Read more »
The River Flows In Me (Ennilekku Ozhukunna Nadi)
This mixed media work by Pradeepkumar charts a landscape in portrait format with a river descending the centre of the picture. Pradeepkumar KP (b. 1970) weaves a narrative centred around the water body to reiterate its power, stillness, and ability to both nurture and destroy. The work moves beyond notions of the scenic and picturesque… Read more »
Tellicherry on the coast of Malabar
This is a view of Tellicherry on the coast of Malabar in the Kannur district. This view was originally illustrated by James Forbes (1749-1819) who arrived in Bombay as a 16-year-old in February 1766 and departed 17 years later after occupying several administrative posts with the East India Company. Only around the end of the… Read more »
Cananoor (Plan of the Cannanore, Kannur Fort)
This is a ground plan of the Kannur Fort in Kerala. The map is attributed to François Valentijn (1666-1727), a Dutch Minister and employee of the VOC (Dutch East India Company). Don Francesco de Almedia, the first Portuguese Viceroy of India, constructed the Kannur Fort, also known as St. Angelo’s Fort, in 1505. For more… Read more »
The Woman Who Ruled Cochin by Raghu and Pushpa Palat
On the life of Parukutty, consort of Maharaja Rama Varma XVI of Cochin and a formidable leader of the Kingdom of Cochin
Divine Doorways – Gopurams of South India
Exploring the towering gopurams of south India through rare photographs of temples across Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala
Age of the Empires
The thrill of serendipity, the awakening of the imagination, the inevitability of being devoured heart and soul by a world you didn’t even know existed until this moment. In a way, being a student of history is like being an astronomer. Especially if the subject of study is an ancient or forgotten kingdom. Click to… Read more »
Of Silk and Spice: A Tale of Two Empires
Sometimes rulers are remembered in song, sometimes in the clinking of coins. Let’s explore the empires of the Cheras and Kushans, whose greatness is echoed in the trade routes they forged
The City of Kochi located on the coast of Malabar
This map, whose title translates to The City of Kochi located on the coast of Malabar, was created in the early 1700s to help sea-traders travelling from other regions to Coetsjien (Kochi). The map was a hand-coloured copper engraving by Francois Valentijn, an explorer and naturalist from the Netherlands who wrote about the history of… Read more »
More quarantine reading: Kerala, Kolkata and the Kafkaesque
We’ve settled into routines now and a big part of that is just vegging out on the couch, in front of a screen or in bed with a novel. It feels like all we’ve done this lockdown is read and reread books we love and binge-watch shows on Netflix. And so we have a new… Read more »
Chitra Thirunal Bala Rama Verma, One Fanam of Travencore Mint
The kingdom of Travancore was a Hindu feudal kingdom till 1858 and later an Indian princely state ruled by the lankini Travancore royal family. In ancient times, the region had been ruled by the Cheras, Cholas and briefly by the Vijayanagara dynasty, until it became an independent state in the mid-18th century. The Travancore royals… Read more »
Creation of Other
A lot of Pradeepkumar’s work deals with the subject matter of figures and their role in a world that was created for them. His art invites the viewer to lurk into this world of shrubbery and nature to try to understand its significance. His focus on native and rural aspects directly alludes to his identity… Read more »
Amazing Stories From Kerala’s Maritime History
Come with us on a journey of Kerala’s maritime history
That Day in The Forest
In this painting, Dibin Thilakan is tapping into the realm between the conscious and subconscious. This painting has seven different figures, all in neatly sectioned parts of the artwork, engaging in completely different activities. This painting is almost like an aerial-view of the forest, offering a voyeuristic perspective on couples having sex, a Narcissus-like man… Read more »
Dibin Thilakan – Tales of the Land
When confronted with his captivating canvases, you dive head-first into the stories told by his sinewy figures, floating amidst ebullient swirls of colour