Flights of Fancy: Kothandaraman Sambandan’s Journey in Art
From India to Europe, art to photography, the canvas to the dark room, Kothandaraman Sambandan continues on an undefined journey to explore more avenues of creation.
As a child, Kothandaraman Sambandan (born 1962)—fondly known as Kota—used to visit the bank with his mother. He watched the strenuous labour of diligent numbers, and their physical estrangements coded into socially-appropriate conduct. He decided then that he would never ‘become this’; or maybe, not become this person, a person who would have to live by the set definitions of success, security, serenity, and happiness.
So, Kota set out on an undefined journey. He created his own meaning and happiness through his artistic practices, while proclaiming his passion for life each time a creation came into being. This journey included travels around the world, where he would find his inspiration and love for architecture and design. He served several years as an art director at a number of prestigious advertising agencies, and his role as a visiting faculty at the Stella Maris College (Chennai) for nearly two decades led him to explore more avenues of creation.
In my two years of telephonic and online communication with Kota, we have discussed about how art should be used to protest, to recall, to rekindle, and to inspire. Despite his very cosmopolitan life, he speaks of open spaces that allows one to think beyond the boxes we live in. A lot of his works are a meditation on the planning of the cities, where life is depicted through flora and fauna or clothes lined up to dry on terraces or open sections of modern-day homes. Besides being an artist, Kota is, also, the creative-director and consultant at Bhargavii Mani & Consultants.
Kota says that he began his artistic journey at the age of five, where he was encouraged at school by his drawing teacher. His teacher would send his paintings and sketches for competitions and art shows, sometimes without even telling the young artist. Kota’s parents instilled in him the need to develop in all possible areas of life, beyond pursuing academic excellence—an attitude relatively rare for a Tamilian family, where excelling in areas of mathematics and science was usually considered to be of utmost importance.
After school, Kota’s mother insisted that he pursue a graduation degree. He enrolled in Loyola College, Chennai, for a B.Com. programme. The college's art club interested him a lot and gave him impetus to continue pursuing his passion. Later, he and his three friends at Loyola College started the Institute for Visual Communications in 1983 at an empty cowshed on the premises. Today, this is an integral department of the college.
Kota’s professional life started as an illustrator at an advertising agency, MAA Bozell at Chennai in 1986. In 1987, he joined Password Communication, a design studio, in Chennai where he gained experience in working on computers. He went on to work with other esteemed advertising agencies such as Ogilvy & Mather and Mudra Communications. Mastering the art of designing logos and typography, Kota decided to gain more experience in life and make a drastic move to Vienna, Austria; a move that also ushered forward remarkable changes in his life. He says that he worked as a gardener too, and then joined UNIDO, where he met his mentor in photography, Craig Theissen.
Theissen introduced Kota to the techniques and tricks of the ‘dark room’. A friend from Sri Lanka gave Kota his deceased wife’s camera. He took pictures and processed them himself, every day.
Soon, he would have his first professional art show, too, with the American Women’s Network at the ‘Woka Gallery’, as part of a group of ten artists.
Kota believes that Vienna gave him his love for theatre, architecture, and space. In a play production based on grid-poetry, Homeless Art written and directed by Karin Kaminkar, Kota found himself skilled in creating stage settings from scratch. Eventually, the experiences of stage production added immensely to Kota's artistic journey. He began to look at the works of Maurits Cornelia Escher, Marc Chagall, Gustave Klimt, Ego Schiele, Robert Mapplethorpe, Albert Watson, and Salvador Dali quite closely; the inspiration of these artists would soon echo in Kota’s work, too. He adds that Tadao Ando is another favourite for his minimalist approach to architecture.
Ladder Dreams - Kothandaraman Sambandan
Now, after such a triumphant journey of collecting stories, Kota works on canvases, photographs, sculptures, and installations, with several materials ranging from wood to plaster of Paris. He takes pictures walking around cityscapes. His dreams have a pivotal role in his two very interesting collections: The Urban Swine and Ladder Series.
The Urban Swine is a commentary on the use of spaces in cityscapes, where claustrophobia and nostalgia work simultaneously as themes. Kota says that there were these strange dreams that would occur regularly where he would see himself fly above cities and float while he would observe the sights from atop. The city would close in on him making it hard to breathe. Aerial views of various cities of Europe and Chennai would float around him. These visuals were later captured in acrylic, watercolour, pen and ink on paper and canvases. This collection is made of strong prominent lines, demarcating spaces that are habitable from the defined lanes of the city. Fences around these structures are particularly drawn to show the distinctive frame found in the last few inches of the whiteness of the paper.
These ends list the innumerable ways in which the city is a limited space with limited possibilities—which is probably why Kota subconsciously looks from atop, where he’s able to gain a perspective beyond the hubbub of the urban metropolis.
Interestingly, a lot of his works are of homes or landmarks that seem to draw upon a comfort that is ingrained in us through knowledge. Historical monuments and giant spaces with identical roofs or windows serve the purpose of this very comfort; this comfort, on the other hand, is a commentary on the making of homes out of closed spaces. Not only do we shelter ourselves in these spaces, we also familiarise ourselves with our surroundings in search of comfort.
These ends list the innumerable ways in which the city is a limited space with limited possibilities—which is probably why Kota subconsciously looks from atop, where he’s able to gain a perspective beyond the hubbub of the urban metropolis.
Some of Kota’s sketches depict a deeper engagement with designs, where we witness amenities that makes the urbanity in his eyes very pronounced. These subtle designs are seen on the barricades around roofs or balconies. The bending of the landscape includes the shape of the skyline that adds to the backdrop of an unexplained emptiness. His sketches are geometrical workings with the intent of showcasing aesthetics as a systematic practice of alignment.
His photographs, too, work with his dream-visuals and he hand-colours some of his black-and-white pictures printed on fibre or plastic paper. Rows of roofs neatly lined up, tall-bulky trees standing close, and rough blurry shadows of the human form or half-human and half-tree forms makes this an exciting collection. Photographs of mundane street signs or flea sales and huge buildings and forms are a constant feed on his social media.
The Ladder Series is another reproduction of Kota’s dreams, one where he saw himself being chased by staircases that would move like in the Harry Potter movies, leading to different kinds of window or door or landing. These staircases are captured on paper with various kinds of paint and colours. A lot of pen and ink on paper works to recreate the rustic dreamlike quality are part of this collection. Tedious and meticulous lines detailing these images edge its onlookers to engage with the art of architecture in closed and open spaces.
Kota’s love for travel is also evident in his work; often, he recreates spaces without any particular form that inhabits them. Knowingly or unknowingly, this allows him to capture the history of design over the years that has become central to our understanding of the structures of our cities and nations, in terms of its planning and amenities.
In the last two years, COVID has changed the way we interact with our surroundings. The drive for physical well-being and the rise in health concerns make us wearier for our lives. In any case, Kota’s visual vocabulary is constantly at a flux. Despite the many changes the pandemonium has inflicted on us, Kota says that he has remained quite positive. He shares that his focus, instead, is on the damage that humanity continues to stress upon our environment, as deforestation, pollution, wars and mindless concretisation have had severe effects around the world. Kota’s love for minimalism has a strong message of how we need to find ways to inculcate caution-driven and inclusive means to save the environment. His art is a commentary on the use of space, energy, and impressions, aesthetically asking its viewers to dig deeper.
To look at Kota’s work urges us to look beyond the given, as he adds his flights of fancies as an afterthought to connect with his viewers. This outside observation adds to Kota’s own interpretations, thus providing a livelier discourse of the art. In his journey, Kota remains faithful to his causes and his treatment of the subject, finding a new visual vocabulary.
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Satarupa Bhattacharya is an independent cultural practitioner, associated with academic journals on visual and cultural studies. She is currently working on academic publications and a novella. You can find her on Instagram: @sattybatty.
