My City As A Landscape

Sujith SN’S paintings are inspired by the ebb and flow of life in Mumbai

SEEING WAVES of employees, armed with backpacks, rushing to and from offices during peak hours in Mumbai, artist Sujith SN gave form to his painting, Archetype, now on display at Vadehra Art Gallery in Defence Colony in Delhi.

“I see the painting as an archetype for the next generation, with workers seen as backpackers. Most of the employees these days carry a backpack, right from the software industry to the labour class. Although these men are in a queue, they appear separated from each other and lost in their own worlds, like islands,” says Sujith, 38.

Sujith chose to name his show after Mumbai, which is an archipelago of seven islands. “The use of human figures in the 17 works on display are like these islands, which, although connected to each other, are separate. The inspiration for this show came after I pondered over the property ads in newspapers, where lush and beautiful landscapes are depicted around the properties to exaggerate the idea of fantasy,” he says.

His painting, titled Archipelago, was inspired by Flemish painter Pieter Bruegel’s Tower of Babel. Sujith has painted a huge mountainous tower, whose rocky top is shaped in the form of a cotton mill, and the remaining structure decorated with a cluster of slums. “The cotton mill is seen breaking down to suggest the shutting down of the many cotton mills in the city. Secondly, the slums here serve as the secondary structure, which come up and grow anywhere as planned. The surrounding serene landscape around this mountain is like how they are shown in property ads,” he adds.

Mumbai’s iconic horse-drawn Victoria carriages, renowned for their offer of joyrides to tourists and locals, become the artist’s subject in Dialogue. A deserted barren landscape shows a man standing miles away from a horse carriage. “I had read in newspapers last year that these carriages would be stopped, as they cause traffic jams and animals were injured by speeding cars. But they continue to ply. This is the point where history becomes stagnant. These carriages have been present since colonial times, and will stop soon, much like trams,” he adds.

Swansong, where a handful of people appear to be working in a blue sea of water, is inspired by the farmers working in fields that Sujith saw during his innumerable train rides. “Although we know these farmers are doing something, we don’t know exactly what they are doing. We can weave our own stories around it. I called it Swansong because it suggests the last performance of an artiste and the viewer is free to weave his own story in this performance,” says Sujith.

The exhibition is on till April 1 at Vadehra Art gallery, Defence Colony