An Artist’s Way of Facing the Challenges of Life
Vijayaraghavan
As an artist, I believe that facing life’s challenges creatively requires a unique perspective that transforms personal experiences into meaningful expressions. My core work has evolved in response to ecological crises, industrialization, and urbanization, which have distorted our everyday tasks within the social environment.
The content of my artwork delves into the ever-evolving human condition, examining ecological constructs and systems and their impact on human behaviour. By infusing both conventional and unconventional mediums, I experiment with a diverse range of techniques. Each piece aims to express our thoughts, explore imaginative novelties, and foster a deeper understanding of ecological and social realities to reshape our ethics and positively reframe our ideas.
I pose critical questions: How can we forge perspectives and practices that build resilience and community across species and spaces? How do we construct relationships with non-humans beyond discourses of pollution, degradation, and destruction? Drawing from my portfolio, I highlight how the elements of my work and their movements are essential in navigating these challenges, allowing me to convey complex themes related to identity, society, and the environment.
Emerging from a deeply personal space, my art explores the intersection of sociopolitical, personal, and emotional expressions that challenge self-perception and consciousness. By juxtaposing new media technologies with traditional mediums, I focus on variety, complexity, beauty, and expression. This approach allows me to explore opposing forces or binaries inherent in mundane human experiences.
At the heart of my artistic journey is exploring the intricate relationship between the individual and society. Through reciprocal visual dialogues, I seek to uncover the dual forces of dehumanization and urbanization. My work represents a journey from the conventional to the unconventional and from the tangible to the digital. I strive to transform pictorial surfaces into perceptible images, using innovative methods and digital technologies to expose the estrangements of our world. This version maintains your original ideas while enhancing clarity and organization for better impact.
The Body as a Tool for Expression
In my artistic journey, I have realised that the body is not merely a vessel but an active participant in the creative process. Through various projects, I have utilized my body to embody emotions and concepts, transforming physicality into a medium of artistic expression. For instance, in my video artwork “Procession: A Flickering Call to Action,” I employ hand gestures and movements to symbolize the power of protest against societal corruption. The flickering eyes of my hand-crafted figurines reflect the heightened tension within our socio-political climate, while my captured motions mirror the progression of a protest march. This interplay between body and action is a potent reminder of the transformative power of individual agency in the face of adversity.
Procession: A Flickering Call to Action
Single Channel Video Projection, 00:02:25 sec, 2020, © Vijayaraghavan.S
To what extent
Single Channel Animated Video Projection, No Sound,
Duration: 00:02:28 sec, Year — 2019
Lonely Metropolitan, 1932, Herbert Bayer
© Estate Herbert Bayer / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
Drawing inspiration from Herbert Bayer’s “Lonely Metropolitan,” this single-channel stop-motion animation, “to what extent…fractured reality,” explores the fragmentation of our existence in a world dominated by mechanization, violence, and urbanization.
Flickering eyes, opening and closing hands — these recurring motifs symbolize the constant bombardment of stimuli that disrupt our daily routines. The fluctuating TV signal error further emphasizes the distortion of reality and the suppression of free
expression.
This piece delves beyond the personal and continues echoing the anxieties and struggles of a society facing violence, intolerance, and injustice. It serves as a call to action, urging us to question our values and advocate for a more positive social and political landscape.
Engaging with Environmental Concerns
WAKE UP ME |ACORDA ME
Single Channel Video Projection
Year: 2013
Duration: 00:01:20 seconds
The ecological imbalance and urbanization that characterize our times are recurring themes in my artworks. In works like “WAKE UP ME | ACORDA ME,” I confront the dehumanizing effects of urban life through stop-motion animation featuring my sleeping body intertwined with projected images. This juxtaposition highlights the overwhelming stimuli of city living while contrasting it with the tranquility of rest. My body becomes a metaphor for the struggle to reclaim natural rhythms amidst chaos, emphasizing the need for balance between human existence and environmental sustainability.
The Journey from Conventional to Unconventional
Title: VARUDANGAL (Years)
Medium: Single Channel Video Projection
Duration: 00:05:19sec
Year of production: 2012
Concept &Creation: S.Vijayaraghavan
I have embraced a journey from conventional methods to innovative approaches incorporating new media technologies throughout my artistic practice. In VARUDANGAL, I embark on an almost illusionistic journey to rediscover the labyrinth of our temporal, spatial, and ethereal experiences within time. With its circularly moving and synchronizing hand gestures, the artwork holds a captivating mystery. Like a secret code, these gestures reveal the text of the years within the Tamil/Sanskrit Hindu/Indian lunar calendar, culminating in the complete nomenclature of the 60-year cycle. The teasingly rotating and rising circular forms further enhance the metaphors of a quest.
The piece is a profound exploration of the negotiation of a labyrinth and the subjective mapping of time within our experiences. As my hand movements gradually opened to reveal each Tamil calendar year, it became a part of the central motif. The lamp light also circulates along a radar signal that typically interconnects cosmic energy as a core element. The image repeats until it forms a circle, a symbolic representation of our tendency to find self-awareness through the cyclical nature of time, a concept deeply rooted in Indian culture.
Ultimately, my artistic practice embodies a call to action — a response to the fragmented nature of contemporary life. By using my body as a tool for expression, I strive to inspire transformative responses from my audience. Each movement, hand gesture, and visual representation invites us to reflect on our shared experiences and confront the realities we face today. In navigating life’s challenges creatively, I aim to foster connections between individuals and society while advocating for a more compassionate and sustainable world.
Throughout my digital art and lens-based portfolio, I continue to explore the intricate relationship between self and society, using my body as both a subject and an instrument in this ongoing dialogue. As I face new challenges, I remain committed to exploring creativity in lens-based media to understand and address the complexities of our existence.
© Vijayaraghvan.S | 2020
‘Dichotomy of every day’ is a digital artwork that expresses current social and cultural issues and clashes between communities; it raises the voice of the common people. I have used my hand gestures as part of the artwork, along with signs and symbols. The composition displays subversive elements that reveal the dichotomy of mundane activities in our lives
(Mr. Vijayaraghavan was born in Madurai, India. Vijay is a painter and video artist whose works explore the conceptual metaphorical between self and society. He earned an MFA degree with a major in painting from the College of Art in New Delhi and did advanced studio art program at Berlin Art Institute, Berlin)
Website: http://vijaysvhavan.wix.com/vijay
