Portarasan S.

Portarasan S. is an insightful ceramic artist whose works are premised on a thorough understanding of materials namely the varied ceramic clays that he engages with. He reinforces the knowledge of his material through an intuitive and energetic articulation with his artistry and dexterity having mastered the skills of its manipulation with easy facility and confidence. This has allowed Portarasan to transmit his deep felt emotions and feelings, which through the process of moulding and modelling, the works acquire strength and power gesturing towards the craft of his art and vice versa. His works are autobiographical, interfacing with his memories and experiences to create majestic yet intimate forms of his life with his daughter. She becomes the chief protagonist; allying his ‘self’ with her in certain compositions or she remains iconic surrounded by the paraphernalia of her young life, namely the various objects which becomes her playmates. To a large extent his themes constitutes ordinary subjects derived from life around him. He also incorporates words written in vernacular Tamil associating with the language to bring in the familiarity of his environment or he also inscribes words in English. He works with metal juxtaposed with ceramic sculptures that are characterized by his understanding of life literally and metaphorically as the two materials offer diametrically opposite feel which brings about the correspondence of his feelings in which ceramic assumes the forms of his emotions while the metal establishes the hard reality of existence where he and his daughter have lost a loving individual so integral to their life. Hence for Portarasan, sensitivity to moments become harbingers of change, which happens at the threshold of memories, setting of impulses which he transforms through his perceptive engagement with materials.