Hyperrealism and the art of Sathyapriya

Before we begin Sathyapriya’s story I would like to talk about my periamma. From when I [Palani] was 12 years old and in Class 6, I stayed at my periappa and periamma [father’s brother and his wife’s] home. I always addressed them as amma and appa [mother and father]. They took very good care of me and my family would often go to their house for our holidays.

My periamma [aunt] was a very important figure in my life. She generously looked after our needs, feeding us through the day, and always on time. When I began learning English at school, my aunt was the one who taught me things. I would go to her with doubts as she worked in the kitchen. I didn’t know how to spell many words but she would teach me, little by little. I liked her since then.

When she passed away because of breast cancer it could be said she had died without living the life meant for her. There is a lot more I can say about her, but I’ll stop for now.

After my aunt’s passing, I asked Sathyapriya if she could draw my aunt from a photograph. I am not jealous of artists, but I grew jealous of Sathya’s work. Only Sathya could build on a work so minutely and patiently. Her style is hyperrealism and resembles a high resolution portrait.

I was introduced to Sathya through Instagram. When I sent her the photo to draw, the image pixelated. We weren’t sure if it could be used for a drawing. I thought it was impossible.

Sometime later I had organised a photography workshop for sanitation workers’ children in Madurai. It was my first workshop and there I met Sathya in person for the first time.  She had brought along her drawing of my aunt. It was an excellent attempt and I connected with it right away.

Receiving the drawing of my beloved aunt at my first workshop made me very happy. It was then that I decided to write about Sathyapriya’s work. I was fascinated by what I saw and began to follow her on Instagram. The fascination grew when I went to her home filled with her work – on the floor, on walls, everywhere.

When Sathyapriya begins telling her story, you can almost hear her paintings speak.

“I am Sathyapriya. I am from Madurai and 27 years old. My work is hyperrealism. I actually do not know how to draw. When I was in college, I went through a love failure [romantic break-up]. I started drawing to move on from the break-up; I used art to push out the depression my first love gave me. Art, to me was like smoking cigarettes or drinking alcohol – a way to get out of my depression.

Art gave me relief. I told my family that henceforth I was only going to draw. I don’t know where I found the courage to say it. Initially I had wanted to become and IAS or IPS [civil services] officer initially and so I attempted UPSC [Union Public Services Commission] exams. But I never pursued it again.

From a young age I felt discriminated against based on my appearance. In school, college and NCC (National Cadet Corps) camp others would belittle me, treat me differently. The principal and teachers from my school would target me and scold me all the time.

When I was in Class 12, the school drains were blocked because girls had not properly disposed of their used sanitary napkins. Our principal could have just called all Class 5, 6 and 7 students or all the newly menstruating girls and told them how to dispose the napkins properly.

Instead, I was singled out. After the morning prayer when Class 12 stayed back to do yoga, she said, ‘only girls like this [girls like me] do such things [clogging drains]’. I was perplexed. What did I have to do with a clogged drain?

In school I was often targeted like this, multiple times. Even when kids in Class 9 got into romantic relationships, it was seen as my fault. They would call my parents and tell them that I was the one who helped the kids in these relationships and that I had brought them together. They would ask my parents to write a letter apologising on my behalf, for ‘untoward words’ or ‘untoward actions’. They would ask me to bring the Bhagavad Gita and swear on it that I was not lying.

Not a day in school passed that I did not come back home in tears. At home I was told ‘I’m sure, you must have said something’ or ‘must have been your fault’. I stopped saying anything at home.

An insecurity grew in me.

In college I was mocked and teased for my teeth. If you think about it, in the movies also it is the same things that people ridicule. Why? I am just like everyone else, a human being. People treat the teasing as normal because everybody does it. They don’t pay attention to how their teasing affects a person, hurts their feelings, or how much insecurity it gives them.

I still have moments when such incidents from my life affect me. Even now when someone takes my photo, I feel insecure. I have been feeling this for 25 or 26 years now. It has become so normal to make fun of a person’s body.

Why don’t I draw myself? If I don’t represent myself, who will?

I wondered what it is like to draw a face like mine.

I started this work with beautiful faces. But later I realised that we don’t just judge people by their beauty, but also by their caste, religion, talent, profession, gender and sexuality. So, I draw my pieces based on unconventional beauty. If we look representations of transwomen, in art, only those who look like a woman are portrayed. Who will draw the other transwomen? There is a standard for everything and I am not interested in those standards. I reflect on why I include people in my art; I wish that people in my art be happy.

No one does art featuring people with disabilities. The differently-abled have done a lot of work but there has been no art on them. No one works on the deaths of the sanitation workers.

Is it because art is aesthetics and everyone sees it in relation to beauty? I see my art as a politics of the common people and a medium to bring out the realities of their lives. Hyperrealism is an important genre for this. Many people tell me ‘oh but you only draw photography’. Yes, I only draw photography. Hyperrealism branched out from photography. It emerges after the camera was invented, after photos were taken.

I want to tell others, ‘look at these people, get to know them’.

How do we usually present those with disabilities? We reduce them to being a ‘special person’. Why look at a person like they are someone ‘special’? They are normal people just like us. For example, if we are able to do something, and another person is not able to do it, we need to make arrangements so that the person can access things too. How is it fair if we just box them as a ‘special needs’ person and just let them be, without making inclusive arrangements.

They have wants and desires. When able-bodied people cannot step out for a minute, we are frustrated. How can the special needs person not feel the same? Doesn’t the person need entertainment? Shouldn’t that person want for an education, desire sex and love? We don’t notice them; we don’t try to know them. No art work represents people with disabilities. No mainstream media features them. How do we remind the society that they exist and they have needs?

Now, you [Palani Kumar] have been working with sanitation workers for over six years. Why? Because only when we engage with a subject repetitively, people come to know about it. There is a need for us to document the existence of any subject: scars, folk art, people with disabilities. All our work should support society. I see art as a support system. It is a medium to share what happens to people. Why not feature a child with disability? Why not feature the child smiling? Is it necessary that such a child should always look sad and pitiful?

About my work featuring Anitha amma, when we were working, she couldn’t continue with the project because there was no monetary help or emotional support. She faced a lot of difficulties. Here, we have to create awareness about the subject, only then can we collect funds. When we do this, we can offer the people some monetary help. The emotional support is also an important part. I want to use my art for them.

I choose the black and white medium as it allows me to feature people the way I want to, and it makes the audience see only that. There is no distraction in it. We can bring out the essence of who they are [subjects and models], and their true emotional self.

A favourite art work of mine is Anita amma’s work. I worked sincerely on Anita Amma’s portrait; and I have deep feelings towards it. My breasts hurt when I worked on the portrait. It had a profound effect on me.

Septic-tank deaths still happen to this day, continually affecting lives and families. There is no awareness about this. The job [manual scavenging] is forced on those belonging to specific castes, against their will. They end up doing this work and losing their self-respect. Despite all this, the society looks down on them. The government doesn’t attempt to make things better for them. Their life has no value.

As a contemporary artist, my art reflects the society around me and the problems in it.”