“I know it seems bizarre, but I think Arunachala is not stable; it moves. It’s a strange stretch about it where I am worried,” says ASMA Menon. The artist, whose solo show, is running in Sacred Space in A Path Jagran Bengaluru, talks about the series that took shape in the last two years.
Cosmopolitan City Dueller has not had an overnight transition to the seeker of solitude in rural areas, but has been a kind of adventure with inspiration for their work.
Asma says that when she re-located in Thiruvanamalai, her home-standio made on a parcel of the ground, which was more than an investment, the joy of discovering her surroundings fed her creativity.
“I hope on my scooter and set on one of my ‘Gate Lost’ trips coming to small temples, find out about the hero’s stones (memorial stones) and a Megalith and dating back to 1,500bce, and enjoying the beauty of a sunset,” Asma said that these road trips said that these road trips said to him.
Asma Menon | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
“I live in a small forest area, where only five houses are built. It is full of trees, birds and sometimes snakes that decide to come out. It’s a magical place.”
Then the small surprise, that the holy place is an attempt to capture Ether Asma everyday. The rural scenes in their functions, using acrylic, as well as oil pastels and watercolor pencils, are depicted in vivid hues and geometric patterns in their works. Wood and water lilies, temple growns and are the self of the sky and the earth, but almost always, anyone can see Arunachala.
“This place is one of the oldest districts in Tamil Nadu, which is endowed with a lot of vibration and power that gradually leaks into you. Epifeni is in a city in this way and you open yourself without any question.”
She remembers how she came into a pit filled with terracotta dogs during one of her trips; No one does not know how they reach there or for what purpose they serve. “When it rains, some of them get worse, but there are still about 10 to 12 dogs at that place of 400 square feet. There is a place that is full of small terracotta cows, where people come to pray when their cows are pregnant. It’s surprising what someone can see here.”
Prequal for a dream
Before she moved towards “Thiru”, because she lovingly calls her place of residence, was the birth and race of Asma city, spending her childhood years in Bengaluru. Asma says, “When I was in the third grade or fourth grade, the first time with Ram Murthy and then with Balan Nambiar, who accepted me in his adult classes,” ASMA said, “he said he started in a show in Balan.
A holy place in the path of awakening from a series of ASMA Menon. Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
After completing his degree in Visual Communications, Asma successfully acted in the production department of advertising agencies and a newspaper in Chennai, Mumbai and Hyderabad. The art faded in the background until she got a chance to portray the books of two children. “It was a sheer fate that I got work, and I enjoyed going back into the drawing,” she says, such as more projects came in her way, she decided to quit a corporate life and complete the art.
She says, “I got involved in printmaking and painting at home. I also started children’s art workshops and eventually returned to the circuit,” she says, in 1994, the success of the stampede of her first solo show in 1994 assured her that she was on the right path.
Today, in her Spartan Space in Thiruvanamalai, Asma says she is still traveling in the holy area. “I find myself awake for a full new landscape that impresses me. It is hot in my soul. It took me many years before render anything on paper or canvas, because it took me to a long time to complete the vastness of that.
Holy place in the path of awakeningASMA Menon has been displayed in MKF Museum of Art till 31 July, 2025. Admission free, Monday closed.
A holy place in the path of awakening from a series of ASMA Menon. Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
A holy place in the path of awakening from a series of ASMA Menon. Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
During his exhibition in 1973 during his exhibition at Balan Nambiar at Asma Menon, Grindlaz Bank, Ekta Building. It is also seen that dancers-kupal US Krishna Rao and Chandrabhaga Devi are with their grandchildren. , Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Published – July 21, 2025 04:42 pm IST
