Parinamam: The artist who refuses to stand still

Most artists find comfort in a signature style a recognisable stamp they never abandon. But for BD Dethan, that very idea feels like a cage. For over two decades, he has been deliberately breaking his mould, shifting styles whenever familiarity starts to feel like repetition. 'Parinamam', his 34th exhibition that is now going on at Vylopilly Samskrithi Bhavan, could thus be called a record of his evolution. Since 2000, I have exhibited almost every year. I cannot stick to one style forever. Once my mind says, Thats enough, I end it and move on, he says. Dethans artistic journey has been a restless evolution. His famous Kali series, created over six or seven years in pen and ink, became a turning point. Stark, haunting, and deeply unsettling, the series was born from meticulous preparation sometimes 50 or 60 sketches before a single stroke touched paper. Published in Kerala Kaumudi, Kali sparked strong public reactions. If you ask me what the most important work of my career is, I would say Kali without hesitation, he admits. The inspiration, he reveals with a mischievous grin, came with a story---part myth, part social allegory---imagining humanity as a mix of demonic impulse and envy, gifted with compassion only as a last-minute divine correction. That philosophical darkness shaped the mood of the series, but it came at a cost. The works haunted me. After a while, I needed to step away. When asked why 'Kali' was so haunting, Dethan leans back and grins. I made up a story, he confesses. In his telling, creation itself had a twist. My grandfather once told me that after the Creator made all living beings, humanity was created last. Before that, the angels asked the Creator What should we add to this new being? And the answer came, Give him a little of the envy we mixed into the demon, the creature we made before this. The tale does not end there. After a while, the Creator realised the mistake. Such a creation could turn the world into a nightmare. So, a dash of compassion was added to humanity as a counterweight. But in the Kali Yuga, that compassion will vanish from within us, and humans will become something neither man nor beast---just distorted creatures without humanity. Look arounddont you see them already? asks Dethan. That vision of a compassionless world became the spiritual backbone of Kali. When I painted it, the images that came about were terrifying. They haunted me. I had to stop eventually. What followed were charcoal portraitsfaces never seen before, yet somehow familiar, drawn from unspoken human anxieties. When you stare into them long enough, a deep discomfort sets in, he says. From there, Dethan swung into a riot of colour with Botanical Fantasydreamlike, three-dimensional floral worlds, painted in large canvases that felt like stepping into a surreal garden. These works were wildly popular, offering viewers a kind of meditative calm. Later came fully abstract explorations, such as Avastha and last years Sangarsham, where colours clashed and blended in patterns that carried an undercurrent of unease. Through it all, the shadow of Kali never truly left. Parinamam: The evolution continues The current exhibition, Parinamam, takes his experimentation to another level. At first, the paintings seem vibrant, almost floral, but the beauty is deceptive. You have to look closely, Dethan says. Only then do you feel the haunting energy beneath. Remarkably, these colours are not painted in the conventional sense. Dethan uses no added pigmentsinstead, he reclaims and transforms images from old, high-quality magazines, scraping, cutting, and layering them with blades to reveal unexpected patterns. The process is as physical as it is creative. It is not something just anyone can doyou need familiarity with the material, and years of craft. Even a small piece can hold immense emotional weight, he explains. Dethan approaches these works with what he calls a five-year-olds mind, free from technical rules, guided only by instinct. When you are 12, reality interferes. But at five, the sky and the earth are exactly how you feel them. That is the state I want to paint in. Sixty years of continuous painting and exhibiting have given him both discipline and freedom. Holding 34 exhibitions here is no small feat. It is possible only through persistence. And yet, next years works may have nothing to do with this years. That is the joy of it. For Dethan, true art should never leave you neutral. Whether it is a painting, a film, or literature, it must disturb you enough to stay in your mind. You should not just glance at it and walk away, he says. In Parinamam, every piece demands that pause---to step closer, to be pulled into its textures, and to feel the weight beneath the colours. In that moment, the viewer becomes part of the artists restless journey---one that is never still, and never afraid to start again.