Artist Devidas Agase’s works showcase how the quest for basic needs is an uphill journey for a farmer and the working and the migrant classes. By Uma Nair

Artist Devidas Agase has got quite a following on his Instagram account. And why not? His works seem to be extremely intriguing. They take us back to the imagery from the medieval age in India, which had an integral role in both mythical as well as cultural domain. His series of eight works, Pawn of an Unknown World, and a series on migrant labour, Way To Home, are both evocative renderings of everyday symbolism.

“I come from the Beed district situated in the Marathwada region of Maharashtra, India. Beed is a historic place of medieval origin,” explains Devidas who has just received the prestigious Khoj Grant. “Coming from a family of sugarcane farmers and farm hands, I have been a close witness to farmers’ struggles and that of the working class on the farm and off it. I have realised that the needs of food, shelter, clothes, however basic, are an uphill journey for a farmer and the working class. They play different roles by taking up menial jobs to merely survive in society,” adds he.

When you look at his polymorphic beings, the imagery represents a deeper tenet of Bhakti — one of devotion and the other, of inspiration. Devidas is deeply influenced by mythic legends, especially the three-faced deities in stories — Trimurti, Datta Digambar, Vishnu Dashavtaras, and Krishna Vishwaroopa. He says, “My works explore these realities of the world and are strongly influenced by my own childhood memories and experiences. Coming from such a background, the significant role of history, mythology, gods and goddesses, turn up in my works.”

His multi-dimensional work, Pawn of an Unknown World, created with dry pigments and water colour on paper, have been set on a nocturnal background to create a narrative born of surreal splendour.

He develops a style characterised by bright colours and symmetrical geometries rooted in the definitive domains of a post-Cubist aesthetic. We can glimpse his evolution in these eight small works that set out to uncover new dimensions with a larger quest to produce a radical visual language. For Devidas, anything he creates is born of his realisation of years of artistic experimentation and intuitive innovation. The polymorphic beings are a historical inheritance.

All the eight works have been brought forward in composition. They  represent the decomposition of journeys and struggles into a series of chromatic narratives. Here, the being  is portrayed as natural, which, however, is far beyond like a human figure. These beings are graceful and full of an ethos of elegance and balance. The idea of creating still lives becomes a contemporary take on the character of a scion cultural fabric.

The pair of shoes in the last image has about it a hint of a memoir tumbling with nostalgia and metaphors of travel. “My childhood narratives from various sources trigger my thought processes about the multi-faceted existences within the contemporary context,” says Devidas. “I try to recreate this idea of polymorphic reality as is seen in mythology as a reflection in today’s human being. My works borrow the concept from the scientific term, Polymorphism, meaning a person at a time can have multiple layers of characteristics invisible to the society. These layered human beings are adapting to their surroundings and situations of surviving trials and tribulations of life. I consider the essence of the experience always helps to shape the core of any artwork.”

In his second work that exemplifies migrant labour, we see a recreation of the travel and the tribulations faced by India’s migrant community during the lockdown amid COVID-19 pandemic. In this work, the act of substitution is clearly evident in his precious prudent finishes, which become a facet of many modes of transition in travel.

Devidas has explained his sensibility born of everyday idioms and struggles that he read about during the lockdown. “I have tried to explore the co-relation between society and human nature as well as the ideologies that govern the social norms like the morality, materialism and politics of the human mind. I believe that there are other silent individuals within an individual who battle for survival at a basic level, irrespective and because of, social, political, religious, and personal conditioning. As an artist, my attempt is to become a narrative voice of those who have been silenced. I believe it only enhances my work giving it a new perspective and a fresher voice.”