Image of the Buddha: Localised by the Personal
by Vidhya Gnana Gouresan, Curator of the Exhibition

This will be Singapore-born J. Kalidass’ first ever solo art exhibition. For this exhibition, which is a milestone that will launch his career as an artist, Kalidass has purposefully indulged in the attempt to identify an individual sense of spirituality, through an almost entirely personal statement in the form of visual manifestations. This, he has achieved, with the help of sculptural images of Gauthama Buddha (hereafter referred to as ‘the Buddha’), the founder of one dynamic social, religious, spiritual, personal-political, philosophical phenomenon. Here, Kalidass has tastefully taken the liberty to project his inspirations from conventional and historic sculptures of the Buddha, within paintings of a monochromatic palette, complete with a surreal energy that will instill a sense of ethereal awe within the viewer. From a technical point of view, the art in this enthralling showcase reflects the emerging artist’s highly-skillful rendition of three-dimensional attributes, sculpture in this case, on flatness.

Born in 1974, Kalidass received his formal training in the art of painting at LASALLE College of the Arts (Singapore). However, he credits Mr Wee Shoo Leong, a senior artist in Singapore, for his unplanned but fundamental entry into the realm of oil painting. Under the tutelage of Mr Wee, Kalidass emersed himself in the process of acquiring a strong foundation in the manipulation of the oil medium. He realised that the oil medium is indeed his comfort zone. It did not take long for his tutor to recognise Kalidass’ innate aptitude. Having had obtained concrete training in technique, Kalidass experienced an inner urge to search for an avenue to explore the possible conceptual elements in his creative process. This on-going search, he says, was initiated by his training at LASALLE College of the Arts.

Since the past few years, Kalidass has been experiencing an inclination towards the portrayal of images of sculpture as a two-dimensional entity on canvas; an intriguing juxtaposition whereby the two-dimensional internalises the three-dimensional; whereby the sculpture attains the status of an almost animate object that is re-visualised and re-contextualised. For the body of artworks for this exhibition, Kalidass has chosen sculptures of the Buddha as his principle motivation. But why the Buddha? “My intention is to mirror a sense of peace, using the image of the Buddha - a symbol of tranquility,” the artist shares, in a confident, straightfoward manner. Cliche as this statement may seem, it is significant to confess that Kalidass’ depictions of the Buddha exude an awe-inspiring serenity and an almost majestic appeal, that are synonymous with the secular image of the Buddha. 

The Buddha needs no introduction, even more so due to the overwhelming availability and abundance of printed, published matter on the Buddha himself, Buddhism and its philosophy, in retail or free circulation all over the world. However, the evolution of the image of the Buddha, is indeed another topic, or rather a concern on its own. It sure goes beyond the regular reproductions of the bust of the Buddha that we encounter in numerous interior design portfolios. The bust of the Buddha is often a key element in completing ‘an Asian eclectic design’. One can be awed by the very power of popular culture.

How did the Buddha truly look like? How are we to know? Well, this is when we conveniently fall into the comfort of a grand visual assumption; an assumption that we have internalised, just like in the case of any other image of divine-historic significance. The Buddha image that we are familiar with today, is indeed the result of the culmination of many centuries of aesthetic evolution that was not spared of social and political agendas. The chronological chain commences with the expression of the metaphysical presence of the Buddha by means of symbols during the era of the Mauryan and Shunga dynasties in India (322 - 185 BC). The anthropomorphic image of the Buddha is believed to have taken root at the end of the 1st century AD in northern India. And of course, the evolution of the image of the Buddha continued with historic developments primarily in Gandhara (northern Pakistan) and Mathura (central northern India). We now live in an era of improvisations, whereby certain physical and facial attributes of the image of the Buddha have been localised by every country or culture that embraces Buddhism.

In the same spirit, Kalidass’ art in this magnificent showcase that resonates a silent, celestial tone of spiritual harmony, is another realm of aesthetic improvisation. But this time, the image of the Buddha is being localised, not within a downright socio-cultural context, but within the emotively-political mind of a spiritually-curious artist.