Sinister Devices, Dissolving Monograms

Rm. Palaniappan's cryptic works are imbued with the mystery of unexplored mazes, undeciphered calligraphic forms and unremembered dreams, says Anirudh Chari.

- Anirudh Chari.

Rm. Palaniappan. Am I Every Where? Silk Screen. 35.6 cms x 35.6 cms. 2018.

More than a Grammar of Randoms, Rm. Palaniappan's solo show was a map of random symbols and scripts. On view at Nature Morte, New Delhi, from the 2nd of April to the 24th of July, the works charted visible and invisible spaces. Palaniappan used sophisticated and pointed visual devices to articulate his relationship with the world around him. Were these spaces personal, utopian, metaphorical? Or were they merely empty signs? Or were these symbols and strategies legible markers of identity distorted and reimagined? Either way, these carefully designed, constructed, printed or painted objects were spaces of transformation. It was also tempting to read these as exquisitely rendered keys to emotional territories. A parallel could easily be drawn between the spaces mapped and the scope of the artistic psyche.