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Sculptures of Catharsis

Enas M.J’s sculptures are confessional. They talk about his personal journey through spiritual and physical crises. In the recent solo show held at the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, presented by Threshold Gallery, Enas revisits his pet theme of confession and catharsis, says Artconcerns correspeondent.

There is something confessional about M.J.Enas’ sculptures. He has been working with the human figure oriented sculptures ever since he came to the art scene in mid 1980s. The latest solo exhibition of Enas presented by the Threshold Gallery, New Delhi at the IHC Palm Court Gallery, too does not differ much from the personal concerns of the artist. These works could be called introspective sculptures with a sense of gloom looming large over them.

A humanist by nature Enas looks at the crises encountered by people in their individual lives. The protagonists in his works are caught in a dilemmatic situation like Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark. The philosophical issue of choice, to be or not to be is a pet theme for Enas, which he has worked in several formats including a monumental fibre glass work titled ‘Hamlet’ in late 1990s. The recurring theme of a chamber of confession where the protagonist talks to his other self, has almost become a signature issue of the artist.

In the latest show also Enas presents a work titled ‘He Spoke to himself and listened to his self’, showing two men sitting in a confession chamber. A search for the spiritual anchor is what drives Enas to develop his works. Quotes from religious texts, which serve him with the titles also, function as the point of departure in his sculptures. These titles are the entry points of his sculptures, however at the same time, the artists does not want the onlookers to understand his works only within the religious context. The religious references become a clue through which the dilemmas of the contemporary man could be understood and interpreted.

Enas’s tryst with the religious life as a theological student several years back in South India had given him a chance to understand the social life through a humanitarian and socialist point of view. A rebel of that time, Enas criticized bookish spirituality and tried to bring the spiritual teachings of Bible with the economic and political views of Carl Marx. He preferred the life of an artist to that of a priest and throughout his artistic career his primary aim was to reveal the spirituality of an individual through a humanitarian point of view.

At certain stages of life, any human being has to undergo spiritual and physical crises. An artist is not an exception to it. One needs an anchor at that point of time. The image of an anchor dominates the show and the image of a man struggling with a winged figure (an angel) captures the eyes. Images of physical struggle, a real effort to attain balance, images of human beings (both male and female figures) looking towards the sky, the last hope explain how the artist tries to negotiate his own spiritual and physical crises.

Images of industrial machinery too play a predominant role in Enas’ repertoire. These machineries are transformed into animated figures so that they could represent the human body in curious ways. Enas’ world, as the exhibition itself shows is a world of spiritual and materialistic struggle. His sculptures not only exemplify this struggle, but also impart a sense of catharsis.