Saima Afreen By Express News Service Laxman Aelay’s association with filmmaking, as an art director, had been a success story until he found his place in the mainstream art scenario. "His active participation in Telangana Movement-II, the subsequent efforts to position himself in the matrix of cultural production, while revisiting the practice(s) of vocational sects and their caste-myths, all divulge his profound interest in his native culture,” writes Anand Gadapa, an art critic. Laxman Aelay Laxman’s art exhibition titled ‘Weaving the Light’ which justifies why it’s been named like that. The show has drawings in black and white used for the Telugu biopic Mallesham which focuses on the life of a rural weaving artisan, Padma Shri Chintakindi Mallesham of Sharjipet. Laxman’s contribution to the movie is of the production designer. So how long did it take for him to work on these drawings? “It took almost four months for me to finish working on the same,” he says adding, “I lived in the village for a few months to sink into the mood and capture the essence of the art over there.” He created all the drawings while the movie was still being made. There are 50 of them, now put on display at Telangana State Gallery of Art. Other than these artworks there are video and sound installations as well. There’s also going to be an ikat walk of celebrities clad in the rustic woven fabric. The artworks capture lives of the weaving artisans with heirlooms in black strokes; the struggle of daily toil juxtaposed with lifeblood required to complete the weaving is what makes the opuses special. Other than that the life of the workers facing the conflict of Sisyphean labour fighting the beauty of art, the artist has also captured their leisure hours, though not many, spent in playing local musical instruments. Laxman is known to delve deep into the rural Telangana, and he does it again with much grace and expertise. The show opens today and is on till June 23

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