Shibu Natesan Four Favourites and Other Works: Art Alive Gallery

The most elusive question remains of what constitutes the subject matter for this artist. Time constitutes for Natesan the real subject matter of his paintings, which is why the artist eschews painting from a still photograph. It explains his fascination with mirrors which reflect the real instantaneously, a theme that runs through his paintings. Mirror becomes an agent of doubling
taking us to the parallax of infinity. The ‘reflections of reflections’ transports the viewer into a dizzying world of appearances, a phenomenon that the Greek philosopher, Plato was averse to.
For Plato, painters were mere illusionists and he mocked their practice by saying that all that they need to do was to carry a mirror and show the world in its reflection, rather than wasting their efforts in capturing reality. But for Natesan, the world of appearance and sensations are more ‘real’ than cerebral abstractions and in fact he fully endorses artist’s ability to ‘reflect’ reality and
unapologetically calls painters “Mirror men” after Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band – “Mirror Man” of 1971. In fact, for Natesan, no studio of a ‘self-reflective’ painter is complete without its essential furniture: mirrors on the wall.