User:Artist Asma Menon/Sample page

Asma Menon
“As an artist and a woman, I feel akin to the embodiments bestowed on Pandora, for without curiosity, what would I SEEK, for without LOVE, how would I express, for without CREATIVITY how would I Journey, in my Caravan of Nomadic Passion, to realms yet to be discovered”… Asma Menon

Multi Layered in conception, Asma Menon’s art works, be it, painting, printmaking or drawing, all sport motifs of clairvoyance.

A maze of lines, are enmeshed with the narrative, on a single plane. Repetitive strokes, converge and disband, to convey, highly sophisticated mythological quotations…

With her intense feminine identity Asma Menon, manage to bridge the gap between the ancestral and the contemporary, with her cosmopolitan but yet deeply Indian character, she appears fully aware of world contemporary art tendencies and at the same time she is centred on a unique life path that links the myth with everyday life.

Trees, animals, human and divine figures appear, fluctuate and melt, creating a plateau, that unites the past with the present with no apparent contrast. She repeatedly portrays the concept of the “maternal” in a way that is very feminine. Asma has her feet on terraferma and her spirit within the galaxies. Earth / Water / Air / Fire / Ether and the shadow on the wall are Asma’s dimensions.

Painting/Drawing/Mixed Media
Asma holds a Master’s Degree in Fine Arts, from the Govt College of Arts and Crafts, Chennai. She has been in mainstream art for over three decades and is a well-recognised name in both painting & printmaking. Asma’s distinctive style and multi-faceted approach is well known. Asma Menon always manages to bridge the space between the Ancestral and Contemporary within the frame work of her creativity and printmaking. Her art is animated, colourful and magical, deeply meaningful and sympathetic to those elements of pictorial story telling us what we as humans have enjoyed over the millennia. Asma moves freely between fables, myths, personal stories with an allegorical touch in her paintings, constantly connecting, mixing and overlapping her brew on the canvas.

Comment - Vittoria Cohen - Art Critic Curator Italy

''The overflowing and vital presence of colour is what strikes the spectator when first meeting the painting of Asma Menon. The colour used liberally and generously all over the field is the protagonist. The artist evidently sees the world she portrays from inside. Every element has a meaning and participates in the creation.''

Asma Menon remains faithful to her natural world, from which she extracts a substance, not banally descriptive or touristy, because there are images, the plot and the solid web of human presence.

Asma has held over 15 solo shows and participated in more than 50 group shows, both in the country and internationally. Her works have been auctioned by the prestigious house of “CHRISTIES” (1999).Her awards include the Senior Fellowship from the Govt. of India. Ministry of Tourism and Culture. (2007 - 2009). Public collection includes, the Lalit Kala Academy (Chennai/ Kerala/ New Delhi) and more.

Print Maker
Definition (1): The hand on the tool maintains human control of its line from start to  finish on the matrix with the printmakers total involvement, the size remains the same when a print is pulled, unlike the hand on the button which simply activates a mechanism in bringing out reproductions as in offset prints of paintings in enlarged or small sizes.

Hence, A Print is an original work of art.

Comment - Lina Vincent - Art Critic (Curator - India)

Asma Menon has dedicated twenty years to making etchings, portraying a mix of organic nature and feminine humanity”

Definition (2): Etching is traditionally the process of using acid to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio (incised) in the metal. In the modern manufacturing, other chemicals may be used on other types of material, as a method of printmaking, it is, along with engraving, the most important technique for old master prints and remains in wide use today.

Comment - Antonio Ecosta - Canada

Line drawing is the first mark I noticed, when getting to know Asma’s etching prints…

Looking closer at Asma’s narrative style, one receives the impression of encounters with things that are imagined and real simultaneously, but which remain demarcated by boundaries; …

As if coming full circle – just as footprints are made to decipher continents, rivers, …

Through song, and a sense of interlocking spaces created through figuration and tonal range, that is intrinsic to this approach.

Sculpture
Asma’s creative expression in the realm of sculpture started in 2017 in a serious manner.

The Integral Coach Factory (ICF), Chennai, invited her for a sculpture camp, the medium being scrap metal. This led to exploring large/medium and small structures and the opportunity to learn the process of welding.

The “Other” medium, opened a flood gate, the approach, took on a poetic thought process and a reminder of the environment.

Street Acrobats

The sculpture is a metaphor to life.

It represents, the nomadic living of our gypsies in India and their street acrobats.

Another endangered species, being controlled and wiped out in the name of modern living and concrete jungles.

We humans are constantly seeking a balance.

Home / office

Spouse/ child

In-laws/outlaws

Friends/enemies

Stress/ calm

For what?

''Akin to the street acrobats, who are being housed in boxes, we city dwellers, have contained ourselves into believing in the four walls. Anything outside this or the crack in the wall, puts us into a tizzy.''

As we keep ousting the nomadic way of life, so too are humans wiping out our love for adventure and the thrill of exploring the unknown.

­­_  Asma Menon

Workshops
Dictionary:

The term pedagogue means a practitioner of pedagogy. A term used for education of children.

“In relation to Art, I would prefer to replace the word education/ educator, to facilitator.

''As an artist, working with children, one’s role is to focus on holistic approach and is not related to the talent of the child, but perception. This is the key tool.''

''The ability of the facilitator is to improvise and “take risks”, I use this term, as each workshop is unique to the socio economic and other such factors, one must be flexible to conceive and move on at a split second. In other words, “Serious Spontaneity”.''

The tools, I use are a combination of exploring Art through Colour and Space/ Improvisation Exercises relating to Theatre {opens up the child}, {received training from a student of National School of Drama New Delhi} / Story Telling {attended story telling workshops}/ Field trips to Galleries / meeting Artists.

The children are also guided to respect the space they are working at and the material they use.

''Art from cave man to the Sunday painter, have in their settings found art to be helpful in unwinding/ expressing themselves and their environment. Today, unfortunately, very few schools allow or have a time slotted, whereby all students participate in the process of art and craft. As much as a paint brush and paint is redundant for most students, so is the needle and thread”''

Awards
2005 to 2007 Senior Fellowship, Ministry of Tourism & Culture, New Delhi | 2002 Women Achievers Awards, National Publicity Project, for the category of Visual Arts, Ladies Circle India, Chennai | 2001 State Award for Print Making, Senior Category, Tamil Nadu | 1997 All India Fine Arts & Crafts Society Award, of Golden Jubilee of India’s Independence, for Printmaking, State Level, Chennai