JEGANATHAN RAMACHANDRAN
by Anurendra Jegadeva
Anyone talking about a critical overview of Malaysian art should find it easy enough to place Jeganathan Ramachandram.
For one thing, he is a painter and Painting, while admittedly, being gradually whittled away from the heart of Malaysian contemporary art by other alternative, newer trends - remains a crucial corner-stone of our art movement.
Furthermore, from early works like the commentary driven The Indian Migration (1996) to his signature much loved Ganeshas and more recently, works like the epic Dasavatharam (2008)and the tongue-in-cheek Bird Brain, he has revealed himself to possess a constant talent.
Beautifully designed with gorgeous passages of decoration, his works reveal the artist as an accomplished colorist, a proponent of complex forms whose new age narratives add considerably to the carefully considered unity of his pictures.
Yet Jega continues to be almost unclassifiable within a telling of a Malaysian art history.
Firstly, his work does not seem to fit into any of the current `isms’ or directions within current Malaysian Painting but employs the elements of many: Figurism, Surealism, Pattern and Decoration, Primitivism, Cubism, Orientalism and occasionally Expressionism … all of which marries very harmoniously within the sanctuary of what is best described - if you can forgive the irresistible pun - as a kind of Mystical Realism.
Rich with their obviously Hindu/Indian metaphors, his Mystical Realism is mostly indifferent to mundane references of contemporary life. It prefers to revel in a philosophical and visual investigation into what has become Jega’s central obsession, in his life as in his art – a deep yearning to grasp the mysteries surrounding the co-existence of the Universe, Humanity, Nature and …. Fate.
As a result, Jega’s aesthetic is not so much religious – which he sees as an organised system of rules nor is it spiritual which is an acceptance of those systems of belief but rather the Mystical – the dramatized meeting place between the two.
In this `between’ place, Jega’s aesthetic sensibility; symbology and iconographies – whether invented or not – finds its resonance.
And their expression is unmistakable and unapologetically Indian.
This can be decidedly disruptive to the assessment of the artist and the place of his work within a context of our Malaysian art movement and dare I say – a Nation – where we are sometimes searching (and at other times, decidedly not searching) for an Identity that is definitely National and distinctly Malaysian.
As with other Malaysian artists with similar experiences and backgrounds – most notably Syed Tajudeen, Jega’s body of work often finds itself outside the measure of Malaysian Art.
Like Syed Tajudeen before him, Jega was drawn to a broadly religious and deeply cultural iconography rich with the decoration and symbology of the sub-continent’s rich and varied social, cultural and artistic heritage and traditions which are so interlinked with those of our own South East Asian collective experience.
On his return to Malaysia, Syed would gradually depart from his early trysts with very definite references to passages from the Hindu annals – the Ramayana and the Mahabharata - often expressed in their darkest and most dire renditions. He began to explore and invent a romantic figure-type and ornate decoration which was unmistakably Indian in character and musicality but chose to search for their meanings within the context of historical and romantic epics from the Malay world.
Like Syed’s work, which has obviously influenced Jega’s own distinct aesthetic, the inspiration for their respective abstract, stylized forms as well as cubist formats seem to have been bourne from the reinvention of the ancient aesthetics of India’s rich tradition of temple architecture, stone carving and Chola frescoes.
A destination that seems inevitable in retrospect.
Jega grew up in Cheras’ dominant Indian working class quarter. A recent migrant family, his father encouraged a deep appreciation for the arts – the, culture, music and literature of India.
In the 80s, Jega studied Fine arts and traditional Tanjore painting under Babu Surender In Chennai, where he also gained skills in granite sculpting, woodcarving and classical music (veenai) – all of which have contributed considerably to the elegance, rich colour and attention to detail so abundant in his glorious picture planes.
Since then, Jega’s engagement with the Malaysian art movement has been sporadic – choosing the role of the artist as an observer to the point of being an outsider… his quest has been philosophical as much as artistic, preferring that the art movement gradually finds him while he looks for other things.
This most recent body of work, Human Watching, is the culmination of that process.
Part of his three month residency at GALERI PETRONAS, Jega has invented a code of values and a system of faith based loosely on a calender of human character, our interaction with Nature, with each other and ultimately, how it affects the Universe around us.
As his brand of Humanism steers away from specific Hindu iconography its seems to dwell in a system of values of his own making where the mystical and the spiritual reside in the pragmatic existence of our everyday interactions with the world at large.
Ala Tolkein’s fantastical creation of his Middle Earth, Jega seems to have invented a system of beliefs which he expresses through his art.
His is an intricate philosophical system which provides its own nuances, vast metaphors and similes, rich associations, wild imaginations, humanisations of personal gods, celestial beings and allegorical animals and always the characterization of people within the context of this complex world we live in.
The paintings in this show comprise of seven compositional and colouristic tours-de-force and seven smaller fragment-portraits of their larger counterparts – one for each day of the week.
All of the energy and activity on the picture planes – so vital to his system of beliefs – is tightly controlled, however, by rigorous compositional control most clearly evident by the demands of figuration which is so insistent in each of these paintings.
There is a wide range of imagery in Jega’s paintings, often overt and coded, yet on occasion lyrically reticent. Although he has deliberately disguised the many layered meanings of his paintings through metaphor-driven symbols and clues, he nonetheless seems impatient for us to unravel his dense and illusory messages.
Jega insists that the meaning of his images or their `characters’ as he calls it, be open because we, the viewer, is building it in. Thus he insists on an active emotional dialogue between the viewer and the image, which will release the `personal energies’ of each.
And through Jega’s actors, set against a fusion of expressionism, abstraction and figuration, secrets are slowly revealed about themselves, as we come to know them, and ultimately, about the hidden aspects of our own world.
Ultimately, Jeganathan Ramachandram’s art seems to be an on-going search for a single purpose and ideal of life…. there-in lies their social relevance.
by Anurendra Jegadeva
Anyone talking about a critical overview of Malaysian art should find it easy enough to place Jeganathan Ramachandram.
For one thing, he is a painter and Painting, while admittedly, being gradually whittled away from the heart of Malaysian contemporary art by other alternative, newer trends - remains a crucial corner-stone of our art movement.
Furthermore, from early works like the commentary driven The Indian Migration (1996) to his signature much loved Ganeshas and more recently, works like the epic Dasavatharam (2008)and the tongue-in-cheek Bird Brain, he has revealed himself to possess a constant talent.
Beautifully designed with gorgeous passages of decoration, his works reveal the artist as an accomplished colorist, a proponent of complex forms whose new age narratives add considerably to the carefully considered unity of his pictures.
Yet Jega continues to be almost unclassifiable within a telling of a Malaysian art history.
Firstly, his work does not seem to fit into any of the current `isms’ or directions within current Malaysian Painting but employs the elements of many: Figurism, Surealism, Pattern and Decoration, Primitivism, Cubism, Orientalism and occasionally Expressionism … all of which marries very harmoniously within the sanctuary of what is best described - if you can forgive the irresistible pun - as a kind of Mystical Realism.
Rich with their obviously Hindu/Indian metaphors, his Mystical Realism is mostly indifferent to mundane references of contemporary life. It prefers to revel in a philosophical and visual investigation into what has become Jega’s central obsession, in his life as in his art – a deep yearning to grasp the mysteries surrounding the co-existence of the Universe, Humanity, Nature and …. Fate.
As a result, Jega’s aesthetic is not so much religious – which he sees as an organised system of rules nor is it spiritual which is an acceptance of those systems of belief but rather the Mystical – the dramatized meeting place between the two.
In this `between’ place, Jega’s aesthetic sensibility; symbology and iconographies – whether invented or not – finds its resonance.
And their expression is unmistakable and unapologetically Indian.
This can be decidedly disruptive to the assessment of the artist and the place of his work within a context of our Malaysian art movement and dare I say – a Nation – where we are sometimes searching (and at other times, decidedly not searching) for an Identity that is definitely National and distinctly Malaysian.
As with other Malaysian artists with similar experiences and backgrounds – most notably Syed Tajudeen, Jega’s body of work often finds itself outside the measure of Malaysian Art.
Like Syed Tajudeen before him, Jega was drawn to a broadly religious and deeply cultural iconography rich with the decoration and symbology of the sub-continent’s rich and varied social, cultural and artistic heritage and traditions which are so interlinked with those of our own South East Asian collective experience.
On his return to Malaysia, Syed would gradually depart from his early trysts with very definite references to passages from the Hindu annals – the Ramayana and the Mahabharata - often expressed in their darkest and most dire renditions. He began to explore and invent a romantic figure-type and ornate decoration which was unmistakably Indian in character and musicality but chose to search for their meanings within the context of historical and romantic epics from the Malay world.
Like Syed’s work, which has obviously influenced Jega’s own distinct aesthetic, the inspiration for their respective abstract, stylized forms as well as cubist formats seem to have been bourne from the reinvention of the ancient aesthetics of India’s rich tradition of temple architecture, stone carving and Chola frescoes.
A destination that seems inevitable in retrospect.
Jega grew up in Cheras’ dominant Indian working class quarter. A recent migrant family, his father encouraged a deep appreciation for the arts – the, culture, music and literature of India.
In the 80s, Jega studied Fine arts and traditional Tanjore painting under Babu Surender In Chennai, where he also gained skills in granite sculpting, woodcarving and classical music (veenai) – all of which have contributed considerably to the elegance, rich colour and attention to detail so abundant in his glorious picture planes.
Since then, Jega’s engagement with the Malaysian art movement has been sporadic – choosing the role of the artist as an observer to the point of being an outsider… his quest has been philosophical as much as artistic, preferring that the art movement gradually finds him while he looks for other things.
This most recent body of work, Human Watching, is the culmination of that process.
Part of his three month residency at GALERI PETRONAS, Jega has invented a code of values and a system of faith based loosely on a calender of human character, our interaction with Nature, with each other and ultimately, how it affects the Universe around us.
As his brand of Humanism steers away from specific Hindu iconography its seems to dwell in a system of values of his own making where the mystical and the spiritual reside in the pragmatic existence of our everyday interactions with the world at large.
Ala Tolkein’s fantastical creation of his Middle Earth, Jega seems to have invented a system of beliefs which he expresses through his art.
His is an intricate philosophical system which provides its own nuances, vast metaphors and similes, rich associations, wild imaginations, humanisations of personal gods, celestial beings and allegorical animals and always the characterization of people within the context of this complex world we live in.
The paintings in this show comprise of seven compositional and colouristic tours-de-force and seven smaller fragment-portraits of their larger counterparts – one for each day of the week.
All of the energy and activity on the picture planes – so vital to his system of beliefs – is tightly controlled, however, by rigorous compositional control most clearly evident by the demands of figuration which is so insistent in each of these paintings.
There is a wide range of imagery in Jega’s paintings, often overt and coded, yet on occasion lyrically reticent. Although he has deliberately disguised the many layered meanings of his paintings through metaphor-driven symbols and clues, he nonetheless seems impatient for us to unravel his dense and illusory messages.
Jega insists that the meaning of his images or their `characters’ as he calls it, be open because we, the viewer, is building it in. Thus he insists on an active emotional dialogue between the viewer and the image, which will release the `personal energies’ of each.
And through Jega’s actors, set against a fusion of expressionism, abstraction and figuration, secrets are slowly revealed about themselves, as we come to know them, and ultimately, about the hidden aspects of our own world.
Ultimately, Jeganathan Ramachandram’s art seems to be an on-going search for a single purpose and ideal of life…. there-in lies their social relevance.