• When: July 1st 2023 at 5 p.m.
  • Where: TASMAI, a Centre for Art & Culture, 17 Advocate Chinna Tambi St., Between 2nd & 3rd Cross, Kuruchikuppam, Pondy

H. Shanmugam has always taken a fascination to spider webs and cobwebs. Both are a part of nature. It seems like a continuous process no matter what happens. When one wakes up in the morning somewhere somehow a new web is created irrespective of time, irrespective of man’s struggles, and this fascinates him!

In the recent past, due to the pandemic, the lockdown literally paralyzed man’s regular process of living and routine. But the spiders continued their mission, and this attracted him, recalling its beauty and relation to his own existence in the recent times. He felt these are adaptable to the current situations where we are tied up in a network, unable to access.

The black, transparent and yellow acrylic sheets the artist feels are suitable to reproduce colours and textures reminiscent of the web. His son’s free hand drawings also resonate with these web patterns and inspire him immensely. Shanmugam’s drawings have the same urge to run through the paper, creating a network of lines. He uses images like the latch and lock, suggestive of traditional values of locking up and safeguarding, where the key is the symbol of man’s access to decision-making.

Whether man is hurdled with pressures or society comes to a halt, the spider is at work, unaffected by its surroundings!

H. Shanmugam was born in 1979 to Harikrishnan and Mangavaram in Ariyankuppam, Puducherry. He had a flair for drawing from an early age. His inspiration and role model was his elder brother A. Soucoumarane who was a national artist. Shanmugam had his early education in the Government school.

In 1997, he did his B.F.A (painting) from Bharathiyar Palkalaikoodam Ariyankupam. In 2002, he did his M.F.A (painting) in Govt. College of Fine Arts, Chennai. He participated in the National Art Exhibition, Lalit kala Academy, New Delhi in 2000. He is a person of positive thinking. His works are mainly based on landscape, creative compositions and installation art. Natural environment based and society related activities are the central themes of his work.

The recent Public Art work ‘Return of Matsya Avatar’ done to sensitize people to move towards an Eco centric life and save the ocean is done on the Vaithikuppam beach, and has overnight become a landmark icon towards environmental awareness of Pondicherry.

Show up to Tuesday 11th July 2023

TASMAI, a Centre for Art & Culture, 17 Advocate Chinna Tambi St., Between 2nd & 3rd Cross, Kuruchikuppam, Pondy

Daily 3 to 7 p.m. | Mornings by Appointment | Monday Holiday 0413 2221052 | tasmaipondy@gmail.com | www.tasmaipondy.com