Rajkumar Korram: Chronicles of Pandemic Days

The set of ten watercolour paintings by Rajkumar Korram are an insight into the pandemic times of a small town and its people whose lives are far away from the chaos of urban metropolitan centres. Each painted folio touches upon one key aspect and delivers a message that is universal to all. The story of farmers, health workers and the artist; of celebrations and conflicts; of the silence of lockdown and icons of development; or the burning globe. The messages here are concerning various aspects: from global warming to personal hygiene. Rajkumar succeeds in delivering his message by deploying interesting narrative techniques. He opts for a location, brings in activities and weaves his narrative around it. The key factor lies in the way he extends these mundane things to the environmental concerns and sustenance of nature. In many ways each painting essays a story of the land and its inhabitants whose lives are knitted closely to the land, trees, and water.

The effects brought down by the pandemic into the lives of people are the central premise upon which the paintings are conceived. It is here that the paintings are important as they chronicle the present as it continues to unfold for us. Rajkumar opens up a gamut of activities and thus introduces us to the daily life of people around him as they navigate through the lockdown. His people are full of spirit while they make sense of the pandemic. We see farmers going to fields, taking their cattle for grazing, office going-man, or a girl going for her online classes. Or, Rajkumar’s own routine of painting, or paying homage to nature; people engaged in sports and entertainment activities; doctors and health workers at work; the scene of conflict between the state and the rebels; The other set of remarkable paintings offer a macro perspective of the same situation. Here we see a different set of symbols and images: technology-driven machinery coming to a halt and the silence created by it; a dam in a nearby town symbolizing the disasters of such large scale construction; or, a burning globe witnessed by the sun and the moon. And, to add a positive note, Rajkumar completes the set with a painting that speaks of the empowerment and enlightenment in the lives of common people.

Just as how the narratives are layered with complex elements, the pictorial surfaces too are filled with intersecting components. The elements overlap in an orderly manner creating a balance in the outlook. Rajkumar playfully constructs his surfaces in plain shades of colours achieving a remarkable depth and perspective. His figures are bold, expressive and lively, reminding us of the language of indigenous narrative painting traditions. But the cosmos represented here is transitory responding to the present.  

Rajkumar’s paintings are dense like a forest. The greensward he opens out is vast. The wisdom he enunciates is perceptive. 

इस काम का उद्देश्य  (Is Kaam Ka Uddeshya)
Notes by Rajkumar

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