His art isn’t only for walls

Hyderabad: Medium is no constraint for Vimal Chandran, whose love affair with art began at the age of four. He is a versatile artist who treads different mediums like sculpture, installations, painting, digital painting and photography with equal ease.

“The medium is a way to express your idea. What matters is what form an idea chooses to take in your mind. Every time I hear a song or watch a movie, read a poem or see an image, I take a part of what attracts me and visualise it in a new form. The art that emerges is always distinct from the image that the author or the original creator imagined. So a new work is born. I think this is the only way for a work to take birth, connected or even an extension of something that is already discovered. Besides, when you think of the images of Himalayan sadhus, the best medium to represent it is always photography,” says Vimal.

Even though Vimal was in love with art, he never received any formal training. “My parents appreciated art, so they always bought me art material. Yet, I chose to do engineering and later shifted to Bengaluru from Kannur to work in an IT company. However, I was so passionate about art that I kept doing digital art. Over a year ago, I reached a point where the remuneration I got for my art was on par with my IT salary and I decided to quit my job,” he adds.

Vimal’s installation and art largely concentrate on the struggles of breaking free from social constraints and the unification of human beings beyond the borders of nationality, religion and caste. However, his digital art speak of a different story.

“I call my digital paintings Unposted Letters. They are like love letters. It’s very simplistic and done in a way that merges the ideas of traditional and modern art. Besides, I put these art works onto canvases that have practical uses. People always want things with functionality. So when you make T-shirts, wedding cards, mugs or other such goodies as your canvas, people appreciate it more. It also helps in getting your art out there to the public. I believe these types of practical canvases are the future of art.”