The concept of the body has always piqued Aditya Puthur’s interest, and he has transformed it into his muse. He questions the body's existence as mere flesh and blood—to him, it is a story of decay, disease, and death. Or maybe a manifestation of our consciousness. Whatever the answer may be, one thing is certain: it is a marker of ownership, a synthesis of all that we interact with, be it food, climate, thoughts, memory, history, habits, or sociocultural politics.
A crucial surgery on a loved one prompted him to examine the body from an investigative standpoint. His search for answers directed him towards documenting live surgeries, studying medical literature, and consulting real-life surgeons and pathologists. These inquiries and observations materialized over time into an understanding of the body as a constantly mutating landscape, all the while calling into question our futile obsession with aesthetics in the face of our mortality.
Aditya began learning about the various aspects of the human body from an emotionally detached perspective in order to achieve a precise and pragmatic understanding of the subject. Oil became his medium of choice because of its visceral quality and his desire to create photorealistic imagery. Serving as the antithesis to the dull two-dimensional clinical drawings that we study in science textbooks and which blind us to our physicality, Aditya’s works are palpably sensuous.
Understanding the inner workings of the body has always fascinated the interest of artists. Since the renaissance, anatomical illustrations have served both art and science by examining how we look beneath the skin. In the nineteenth century, an arresting hybrid of painting and medicine emerged as the painting genre of the operating theatre. Some notable paintings of this genre include Rembrandt's The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp (1632), Thomas Eakins’s The Gross Clinic (1875), and Leonardo's ink drawings of human anatomy documenting his findings in his unique mirror writing. Deriving from this tradition, and adding his own unique perspective, Aditya's works expose the most intimate parts of the human body, making us prying spectators.
His unwavering desire to depict accurate details of form, depth and proportion using contrasting colors and a single source of light is reminiscent of the Baroque style. The different dissection tools, pins, hooks, and scalpels and folded-back skin remind viewers of the often brutal techniques used in medical intervention.
As we look at his work, we are torn between revulsion and admiration for his commendable ability to replicate and perfect the minutiae of the intricate landscape throbbing beneath our skin. The starkness in his works has a humbling aura, eliciting the experience of oneness and our shared existence and consciousness. The works are almost lifelike and evoke feelings of sublime, shock, curiosity, and fear. An unsettling sensation overpowers the viewer, despite the fact that what we see is the reality, vulnerability, and fragility of one's existence.
Through this exhibition, prepare to enter the artist's mind and rediscover the place called Body.
Text @ Aditi Ghildiyal