Ashok Kumar Gopalan

As an artist, l draw my energy from my specific locale. The spectrum of social ambience, flora and fauna, local philosophy, rustic wisdom, cuisine, social criticism bordering on a strident sarcasm do exercise a role in determining my art. Kerala's regionalism, dialects, extinct species, geographical peculiarities, profound anxieties and deep sighs, all these determine the trajectory of my work. A complex linear interplay of this phantasmagoria provide the ideal sounding board for my art to take off in its projection and journey towards globalisation. Voyeurism is the leitmotif here, as I visualise the images through multiple angles that constitute the very essence of my visual academics.

l currently practice art in a rural hamlet of northern Kerala. All tensions and dissonances characteristic of the city find their resonance in rural spaces as well through mute wars and a suppressed violence.