In one of K. G. Subramanyan’s works, a sword-brandishing Ravan runs forward to meet his dreaded enemy Hanuman face on. The two look braced for a fight, except in the jaunty brushstrokes of Subramanyan, they could well be rushing forth to broker a truce. Subramanyan’s mythological characters are not divine beings endowed with powers that beggar belief – they are irrepressibly and wholly human, their forms sometimes a bit ungraceful as humans tend to be and their actions all too prone to colossal error in judgement. “He uses them [myths] as metaphors to animate the everyday world in various ways – sometimes in celebration, sometimes in sly irony, and sometimes in gentle indignation,” writes professor R. Siva Kumar in the catalogue essay. And herein lies the brilliance of these 24 works, currently on display at Project 88 as part of his solo show Mythologies.

*image (left)
courtesy of the artist and Project 88