FOUR DECADES
by
Isana Murti
 |
By the 1970's Menon's work began to acquire an allegorical, narrative quality but the myth were of the artist's own making - a strange amalgam of east and west. Goats, dogs, crows and lizards often attended the central protagonists. Diaphanously clad women only half-revealed; animals, birds, reptiles and apocalyptic male figures inhabit and impinge upon a mythical world excavated from the artist's subterranean existence. These myths supported by a complex imagery were distilled from a highly individual sub-conscious and do not relate to the collective myth. In an introspective moment, she reflects, "It is a lonely moonscape of my own making, trespassed upon by the occasional bird or animal, and the protagonist is often the person I yearn to touch, the person I long to be." Later there was a transition in her work from the nude to the window and a concomitant shift in perspective from the very subjective to a more literary and cerebral mode. From painted windows Menon incorporated real windows in her work as 'objects trouves'. The actuality of the window and its irreverent ornateness connects the viewer to a grid of fractured spaces and multiple images. In the most realized works of this genre, Anjolie evokes that which is hinted at, the unsung song that wafts across disturbing landscape-the unrealized dream that beckons through the window that serves as both metaphor and visual device. |
The windows persisted through the 80's but now allegory gave way to an engagement with subjects from Kerala inspired by early photographs --seated figures, poised against fake backdrops, empty chairs and ascetic poojaris emerging from dark interiors. Throughout the 80's Menon painted in America every summer in the house of Aditya her eldest son. Many of those paintings are being seen for the first time in India.
The 90's were marked by diverse explorations and innovations in a bold departure from her earlier work. In 1992 Menon turned towards an astounding source - the kabadiwallah. Entitled 'Follies in Fantastical Furniture’; this tongue-in-cheek resurrection of abandoned junk was both audacious and innovatively amusing. As the noted art critic, the late Krishna Chaitanya noted, it was rewarding to "share the mood in which she has created them, a mood of venturing into new directions, inspired by the modern, post-modern, post-every- thing spirit of restless enquiry that probes fresh perspectives without any prior fanatical commitment." Chairs, tables, cupboards, boxes off junk heaps.. little seemed to escape the of the artist in imparting these objects with an aesthetic autonomy. In an inimitably impish way, Menon broke fresh ground with irreverent panache.
The
innovative experiments of the mid 1990s with computer aided images were
amongst the first in India. The superimposition of overlapping images using
computers, photography and collage painted over with acrylic, oils and
inks results in an impressive tour de force entitled Mutations. In these
works unexpected juxtapositions intrigue the viewer. While the complexity
of the structure heightens the element of surprise, the elements of chance
liberates the image from its familiar moorings. Nude, serpent, boy and
crocodile remake themselves repeatedly, giving birth to unrecognized mutants,
which claim a life of their own. Underlying the slick surface of the totally
new picture are echoes he artist's earlier work, reinforcing those elements
that have been associated with the Menon idiom while achieving a new sense
of scale.
In the next phase, the artist, for the first time, explores the
non-figurative - inspired by the Buddhist iconography of Ladakh.Thecontinuous
chanting of a 'mantra' is transmuted into image, evoking metonymic reverberations
in these meditative paintings of 1998. The late 1990 saw Menon doing a
volte face in terms of the choice of medium. The long standing
‘riyaz’ with paint was put on hold. A completely different medium
- glass - challenged the artist's creativity. Working in Murano with local
Venetian mastery, Menon has created a body of exquisite crystal sculptures
- entitled the Sacred Prism-where the austere precision he finished object
is sensuously beautiful. In her latest work Menon navigates the world of
kitsch with empathy and engages with the familiar image from the calendar
in the local riwallali's shop or the cinema hoarding that dot the urban
landscape. As Gayatri Siriha perceptively observes of this new genre: "Menon
emerges in the vanguard with investigation of the subversion of myth. She
introduces the extremely recognizable figures from her own painting with
the appurtenances of kitsch, thereby forcing a confrontation: between notions
of elite 'high', and popular 'low', art."
All the new experimentation is still characterized by the old masterish
technique, reminiscent of Renaissance paintings, for which she is best
known but endures as a parody of itself. Self-mockery and sly satire, tranquility
and disturbance imbue her work with an aura of paradox that transcends
the melancholic romanticism that appears to be an integral part of her
persona.
Menon in an in an Introspective Mode
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