Rajan Krishnan
(b.1967, Kerala)

Rajan Krishnan did his Bachelor’s in Economics from Calicut University, Kerala after which he decided to follow his true calling and signed up for a B. F. A. (Painting) at the College of Fine Arts, Thiruvananthapuram. He completed his Bachelor’s in 1994, and thereon pursued a Master’s degree at the Faculty of Fine Arts, M. S. University, Baroda. One of the few Keralite artists who decided to go back home and work from there, Krishnan’s art has always been very sensitive to his environment, reflecting the socio-cultural ethos he inhabits and works from. Krishnan uses landscapes or elements from his immediate natural environment as his “principle protagonist” to express his innermost, aesthetic proclivities whether in celebration, homage or protest.

While his earlier works were more realistic, featuring land/agriscapes typical of the topography in his hometown, of late however, his imagery has changed significantly. Krishnan works in a mode of realism that is significantly not based on images culled from the media or photographs made by the artist, his hyper-realism instead draws from memory, impressions, nostalgia and a sense of one’s shared inherited histories. Representing a “post-agriscape”, his later works are often, bleak, fragmentary visions of a dry, sterile landscape that seems to be an echo of a time which once buzzed with activity. “Instead of paddy, concrete and consumerist debris grow in these field.” said Krishnan. While his early experiences and memories of growing up in a village in Kerala have had a strong presence in his early works, this slightly sentimental nostalgia now seems to be giving way for a more hard hitting cynicism that strives to document the sudden and overwhelming transitions occurring in his environment (that acts as a microcosm for the state of affairs in the country at large). These works make a clinical examination, up close and unforgiving, at those “un-done landscapes” that he once held so dear.

His show titled ‘Memoir which was shown at Bodhi Art, New York in 2007 reclaimed the sites of memory and their often contrasting relation with history. His open ended and ambiguous images posed questions, rather than give answers. His most recent oeuvre ORE Substances of Earth – I which was a multi-media show consisting of paintings, sculptural materials and a video, fell within the category of installation. Large and small scale paintings, metal and terracotta constructions and a DVD were used by the artist in order to modify the way we experience a particular space. The work was meant to raise a memorial about earth or landscape. It was a personal and collective reflection on tragedy and resilience.

While the sculptural materials/ constructions are an extension of his paintings, his works are meant to remind us of some of the places that we discovered and the yester years of our lives. They remind us that memory belongs to no one and to everyone.

The artist lives and works in Kochi, Kerala.