Manjunath Kamath

Manjunath Kamath 
Fake Love Story 
Digitall Print On Archival Sheet 
Manjunath Kamath tells stories with his images. His narratives, however, are altered and adjusted constantly, adapting fluidly according to the environment they are narrated in, and resulting in a different meaning each time a story is told. As a visual artist, Kamath feels impelled to regularly reinvent his method of storytelling. By relentlessly working on his articulation and modernizing his techniques, the artist continuously updates his visual vocabulary.

The artist’s need to draw and hold his viewers’ attention is palpable in his varied use of painting, drawing, sculpture and video. With the help of these disparate genres he creates narratives that are gripping in content, even though they are composed of simple, commonplace elements. Thus Kamath’s forte ultimately lies in creating fantasies out of the ordinary.

Kamath usually begins a painting with just one element; this could be drawn from memories of past experiences or the reality of present contexts. He then keeps adding and taking away from the imagery, paying particular attention to structuring throughout this process, and ultimately arrives at a composition that he deems suitable to be the vehicle of his narrative. To Kamath, then, the process of construction is more important than his completed work.

Manjunath Kamath approached the idea of size for the exhibition ‘Size Matters…Or Does It?’ as a conceptual rug that lies are swept under. With ‘Twelve Small Lies’, he suggests covert behaviors and longings that are paradoxically absurd.

In his larger work, ‘Lies Between Question and Answer’, Kamath creates lies that have the ability to insinuate themselves while going unnoticed. The works are especially interesting when viewed in tandem. He explores a lie’s pervasive and seductive smallness, which, rather than its form, is the keys to its dangers.