Happiness Exhibition
After three solo abstract painting exhibitions on the Thirukural in the last couple of years, this 18 year old will be showcasing around 30 works on the complex topic of 'Happiness' at her fourth solo exhibition, later this month
Tarika Ram
In January 2023 this section had featured a story on Tarika Ram’s debut solo art exhibition at Chola Art Gallery where she had presented her interpretations of around 25 verses from the Thirukural in the form of abstract paintings. 2 ½ years later, this 18 year old will be showcasing her art talent later this month presenting around 30 works centered around a quite complex theme - ‘Happiness’. While she had started out with her passion for art through paintings, she has since expanded her portfolio to include tapestry, digital art, clay sculpture and installation.
A decade long engagement with Art Mentor
Art teacher Diana Shatish is deeply committed to fostering community connections through art and has an experience of close to 25 years as an art teacher. She has collaborated with children from diverse ethnic backgrounds and runs a weekend studio offering a non- judgmental space to explore art with freedom. She has been involved with Tarika for close to a decade having started out when the latter was just 9 years old and has played a significant role in laying a strong foundation in visual arts and shaping Tarika's steady growth as an artist through her teenage years.
Looking back on the first phase of her association, Diana told this writer that while Tarika began by creating simple compositions experimenting with basics of line, colour and composition using a variety of art materials she was quick to grasp the concepts and visualise the scenario. "We began with exploratory activities like drawing and painting, doodling, breathing exercises while painting, scraping, using various tools to create textures. Even in that early phase, I noticed that she used unique colour combinations such as pink and brown which was beautiful" says Diana.
Nava Golu Installation at 11
Even before she moved into her teens, Tarika' s interest in arts deepened through structured projects. "She began to display improved control over mediums, learning perspective and colour theory, combining materials like fabric and paint and produced complex pieces including a large room size installation for Navarathri Golu when she was just 11. She developed a mature, self-driven approach, creating a portfolio reflecting her unique style" says Diana on Tarika seemed to have a natural talent for arts even at that young age.
Indepth into the Thirukural Sonnets
Tarika, a resident of Prithvi Avenue, Abhiramapuram, credits her parents (Srivats and Aruna) for her early interest in Thirukural and for seeding the thought in her to do a project on Thirukural. This led her to go deep into this subject and she began exploring the Thirukural reading the translated version of Gopalkrishna Gandhi. Picking up around 25 of the Saint Poet’s sonnets, she spent hundreds of hours understanding the significance of the messages and then went about translating them into abstract expressionist paintings. As she began reading the verses from the Kural, the messages of Thiruvalluvar captivated her mind. “I learnt the first kural as a teenager and decided to paint my interpretation of it. My appa and my art mentor Diana (madam) suggested to me to do abstract paintings on canvases of different sizes. I first started with smaller canvases and have since moved to larger ones.”
Three Solo Exhibitions on Thirukural
She says that her interest in Thiru Kural has grown over the years “My three solo exhibitions were all based on the Tirukkural. It was an exciting early experience for me as there were many visitors at the exhibitions at Cholamandalam Art Gallery and Alliance Francaise and I enjoyed interacting with them and presenting the thought process behind the paintings. The positive feedback was very encouraging and spurred me into the next phase” Tarika told this writer.
She also found the concert at the exhibition by the renowned Sikkil Gurucharan based on the Kurals she had painted very motivating and says that she was particularly touched by the weaving together of the three art forms - poetry, music and painting.
Tarika is all praise for her art teacher for providing her a lot of exposure to a gamut of techniques and materials that has helped build her confidence in wide ranging areas. She is particularly pleased for introducing her to the Indonesian Batik techniques.
From Thirukural to Happiness
Having presented three solo exhibitions on the sonnets from Thirukural in the previous couple of years, Tarika took on a very challenging engagement for her next one that even left her art teacher stunned. Happiness is a state of mind that everyone is trying to reach and one that most are grappling with. Tarika found this interesting and decided to present an artist’s interpretation on this most talked about aspect in life.
Diana couldn't believe it when Tarika brought to her the concept of Happiness as a theme for her next exhibition "I was delighted to see a teenager get deep into even the sub branches of Happiness like thought, flow, gratitude, music, colour, purusharthas, ikigai, toxic positivity and forgiveness. It was so complicated to even comprehend these topics in a non-representational way."
Her Inspirations
She has drawn inspiration from Brazilian artist Beatrize Milhazes and French Visual artist Henri Matisse. The traditional art form from Maharashtra, Warli Art, is also something that she has looked up to. In addition to her mentor Diana Shatish, she says that two Chennai artists, Rvindran and Kalyani Pramod have guided her along the way. Specifically on Tapestries, she says that she drew inspiration after visiting a show in Chennai called Jarracharra based on Australian Aboriginal art.
Tarika says that this was a well thought out idea and believes this concept to be relevant to everyone "I chose happiness because everyone wants to be happy and it’s a universal emotion. Yet, some people struggle to achieve an optimal state of well-being. Further, this is a topic that can be conveyed through abstract art and that's the reason I was confident that I could take this up and present."
Diana provides insights into how the two of them went through this process of presenting Happiness in an art form "We de-coded these complex topics through positive psychology and decolonial lenses using Tapestries. She has weaved, painted, coloured, sewed, used collage and dyed one's own cloth using natural dyes, fostering emotional depth in tapestries."
Tarika was quick to grasp these aspects and offered mind blowing ideas such as vibrant dye palettes and suggesting rhythmic patterns, sparking innovative designs for harmony refining her art mentor's approach to joy. "This meant that I could quickly move Tarika onto cohesive series design and planning this exhibition which will be all about tapestries and textile" says Diana.
While her appa Srivats will be at several important Board Meetings this fortnight with this being a peak season to announce the first quarter results, Tarika will be at work on another kind of 'Board'. She is in the process of giving the final touches to her 30 works on 'Happiness' that she will present in a week long exhibition end of this month.
Her passionate interest in art over the last decade has driven her to take this up as a full time career and the exhibition this month will be an important milestone in this art journey of hers.
