Anujath Sindhu Vinaylal recreates the world around him in exceptional detail in a series of sketches on show at Durbar Hall Art Gallery. ‘Around me, a world of wonders’, that opened in Kochi on May 14, contains 70 selected drawings done by him over a period of eight years. The drawings feature the people, animals, places and things he encounters in daily life.
The everyday scenes, however, turn into joyful, compelling and curious images in his frames. Anujath treats each of his subjects with utmost care. From a waddling duck to a dog chasing its tail, a woman cleaning fish, or his favourite eating place, a pile of jackfruit, a bull resting in the Thekkinkaadu Maidan in Thrissur or the Ganapathy Vilas Tiffin House, the semi-rural landscape of his hometown bursts into life in his drawings. “These are things I see every day, I am just documenting them as they are,” he says.
The images are also deeply connected to him. “I have fond memories of Ganapathy Vilas. I would eat here on my way home from school and they would reserve two pazhamporis for me.”
Sixteen-year-old Anujath from Thrissur is known for his 2017 painting, ‘My Mother and Mothers in the Neighbourhood’, which brought him acclaim and international recognition. The painting, a colourful mosaic of women engaged in varied household chores, depicts the life of ordinary women who work through the day. The painting was selected as the cover of the Gender Budget document of the Kerala Government for the year 2020-2021. Anujath calls the painting a tribute to mothers all over the world; he lost his own mother to a heart ailment two years ago.
The image, which continues to inspire people all over the world, won Shankar’s International Children’s Competition Award in 2018-19.
The National Book Trust will release a picture book based on the painting to honour mothers from different parts of India, painted by Anujath, who is in Class XI at Devamatha CMI Public School, Thrissur.
He has won several awards, including the National Child Award for Exceptional Achievement in 2016, which he received from the then President of India Pranab Mukherjee.
This is his solo show and the aim is to inspire children and instill in them a sense of curiosity, says Vinaylal, Anujath’s father, a graphic designer.
The exhibition is on till May 20.
