Chennai sculptor interprets Indian mythology through metal reliefs and paintings

Animal forms, Indian mythology and African arts make an appearance in Chennai artist Hemalatha's work

Growing up in Chennai’s Cholamandal Artists’ Village is the ultimate starter kit to becoming an artist. Hemalatha Senathipathi would agree. The daughter of Senathipathi, one of the scions of the Madras Art Movement, Hemalatha was exposed to arts and craft right from a very young age. She would be a fly on the wall as her father and his peers — pioneers of one of the seminal contemporary art movements to have originated from South India — worked tirelessly on batik prints, metal reliefs and terracotta models. These wares contributed to their livelihood ahead of their glory years as artists specialising in fine arts. . 

“I would pick up scraps from my father’s work, and start working on embossed metal reliefs. It’s been almost three decades since,” says Hemalatha whose 56 pieces of work — both paintings and sculptures — are now on display at the Theosophical Society in Chennai’s Adyar. Her penchant for using metal as a medium began from her father’s workshop. “Despite how hard it is to manage, I like metal. I started working on sculptures much later,” says Hemalatha. 

Espousing a clear leaning towards decorative metal work, Hemalatha, from her early years as an artist, would embellish everything she worked on. “I would have human characters wear ornaments with a generous use of enamel,” says the artist whose paintings also carry the riotous glint of enamels on figurines sporting sharp, almost Cubist features. 

African arts, Indian mythology and folk arts are clear influences in her frontal and three-dimensional sculptures. Peacocks, in fact, fascinate her. “I like to explore new techniques in sculptures. For instance, I used to have the faces framed with copper wire but now I make the wire structure through welding,” says Hemalatha. 

The exhibit is on view till January 26 at The Theosophical Society, Adyar, Chennai.