An impressive collage of nature’s unique artwork and human creativity - this sums up ‘Birds in their Moods’, the driftwood exhibition that opened at Durbar Hall on Thursday.
The raw and unsanded driftwood pieces sourced from seashores and river beds have been chiseled and waxed by the artist to bring forth the priceless art and form in them.
Be it an abstract bird or human form, the expo conducted by Dr (Col) Tommy Varghese, a former director from the Armed Forces Medical Services, is unique in its expression, enrapturing and vastly pleasing to the senses. The forms exude earthiness and consistency despite a shiny surface manually given to it.
Dr Tommy has also aesthetically tagged the carved-out forms in various emotions thereby depicting birds in various moods, themes and spaces.
Be it the ‘Co-passenger’ where two bird forms huddle together, ‘Sorrow’, the piece depicting a grieving bird or the ‘Caught in Monsoon’, where a bird curls up its drenched wings, it is hard not to notice how effectively the wooden pieces communicate.
“I have added nothing to the forms here. My effort is limited to perceiving the form in wood pieces and cutting off the unwanted portions that conceal the image. I use sandpaper and sometimes wax to give it a lustre,” says Dr Tommy.
The wood used for the art is mainly Paddock-a family of Rosewood - and Rhododendron. Obtaining the driftwood pieces is a taxing and perilous task. “Most of the items exhibited here are collected from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Assam and the Indo-Tibetan Border during my service in the Army. It all started as a hobby,” he says.
“One’s creative mind comes to play in identifying the forms in rustic and consistent wood pieces. Removing the unwanted portions to bring out the form is creative and challenging at the same time,” the doctor-turned-artist says.
Dr Tommy, who aims to create awareness among people about this rare hobby through putting up the exhibition, feels that the artist here is nature itself and he a mere collector. Though the exhibits are mainly bird forms, Dr Tommy Varghese has an equally rich collection of other forms. The exhibition is on till Sunday.
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