A recent set of spontaneous drawings from Madhusudhanan, Mynaakam is inspired by a figural bird from the Puranic Vedas, particularly chapter 18 of the Harivamsa Purana, whose name when translated means ‘the mountains have wings’. It is said that when Lord Indra cut off the wings of the mountain, the mynaakam escaped or was set forth upon the world, charged with the duty of guarding the world from demons and evil spirits. As a symbol of protection and freedom the mynaakam is a saviour, whom the artist envisions as a metaphorical guide for the present refugee crisis in the world as explored in these drawings. In considering the disembodied displacement of refugees, Madhusudhanan continues to undertake a discourse on colonization and the perpetuation of a slow pace of development in previously colonized nations. He approaches an evaluation of movement and territory and the redressals of belongingness with a similar vigour to his appraisal of the ideological apparatuses of the Marx archives and Franz Kafka’s short story ‘In the Penal Colony’.
K. M. Madhusudhanan | Mynaakam: In Touch Edition 5
Past exhibition
