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| Sunday, 17 October 2004 |
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'Beyond life' : An enduring legacy by Suresh Mohamed Sanjiv Mendis, at 2 1/2 years of age, was as playful as any other child, yet with an extraordinary talent for drawing recognisable objects of his passion - cars and planes and guns. "Until he was about 14 or 15, these drawing sessions would always be accompanied by the most astonishing sound effects of whistling bombs, screaming airplanes, ear shattering explosions or ricocheting rifle bullets and sometimes humans in their death throes.
The drawing would be interrupted when these exploits had to be enacted. He would act out the imagined events most realistically, playing the roles of attacker and attacked", his mother, Charmaine Mendis, recalls. Sanjiv was born in 1971 as the sixth son of the family. His five older brothers proved to be his heroes, friends, teachers, and at times bullies depending on the situation. "He was born with a passion for cars. It was therefore natural that he would spend hours on the floor with paper and ballpoint pen trying with his baby hands to draw these objects of his interest. Fortunately for Sanjiv, his older brothers who were artistic as well, would spend time showing him how to draw his first cars and planes". Charmaine, herself an artist, recognised the potential talent in little Sanjiv at a very early stage. She was in fact astonished by his substantial control over his drawings. "I was amazed at how his baby hands could inscribe a complete circle. The large ones were hard enough, but those little ones needed so much more control". As he grew he needed more papers, more pens and more time for drawing. Wherever he went, even overseas, he needed his papers and pens. Even in his school exercise books, there were little sketches in every blank space. "His earliest recognisable drawing was a box with four complete circles for wheels, which he called 'Car'. From then on, there was never a time when Sanjiv did not have paper and pen close at hand. Paper could be anything from old bill books, ledgers, diaries, half-used notepaper or a wipe-off board. And this inward compulsion to draw was to last throughout his lifetime - even in University, and when he came home on 'breaks'. Although Charmaine found Sanjiv's earlier drawing unusual and seemed he had an innate talents, she wanted an appraisal done from outside family circle to confirm that Sanjiv in fact, did possess a special talent and that it was not simply the result of her over-enthusiasm or over-reaction. So she took all Sanjiv's baby drawings to one of her school friends, Lathifa Ismail, one of Sri Lanka's most successful Art teachers, for her views. She was impressed with the four-year-old's work. "For one of his first assignments, Lathifa gave a box of pastels, opened her refrigerator, and asked him whether he would draw the tray of eggs sitting in the door. The result was 'Eggs' which hangs in Lathifa's bedroom today. Sanjiv was so small that he could not go to the Art class alone and even could not open the pots of paint by himself. His mother would help him to open and place them on the floor around him. When he was not drawing, he would sit on her lap and suck his thumb. Although this suggested he was still a baby, his painting proved that he was not. He knew in his head exactly what he wanted to paint and how he was going to do it. "I could not figure out why he would use a particular colour. His early paintings show an amazing boldness in placing colour and using space, which I as an artist would not have the courage to do even now. Watching him work on his large canvases, I found that small as he was, he would never hesitate and ponder about what he wanted to do with the canvas in front of him. He would plunge right ahead". The titles for all his pictures were his own and even when he was as young as 2 1/2, he would explain his drawings very carefully. Although his work is recognised as a 'creation', Sanjiv didn't think he was doing anything wonderful. "It seemed to me that Sanjiv always had a need to record and convey his feelings through his art. He needed to draw like we need to breathe, and once he got a particular picture out of his head and on to paper, he lost all interest in it. He would immediately crush the drawing and toss it into the bin. To him it was not art, it was just something he had to do at that time. I had to plead with him to desist from crushing his pictures so I could collect them. There would be sheets and sheets of paper lying all around him after one of these sessions, which I would pick up, date, and put by". Sketching and drawing were congenital to him, but when it came to painting he was quite serious and worked with concentration even as a small boy. He did not paint continuously, he painted as and when he was moved by the spirit or some form of inspiration came to him. "In this, he was like so many writers, whose creativity ceases during periods of 'drought'. He did not paint much between the ages 15 and 18, but continued to draw and sketch". His painting goes through different phases of colours and animals. There was a shark period, a whale period, a pink period and a blue period. "There were times when he would reject superfluous details or decide that large patches of unpainted paper or canvas be left blank. There were other times when detail mattered, especially when it came to cars, planes and guns, his favourite pieces of machinery". His first Exhibition 'Small is Beautiful' was held at the Lionel Wendt Memorial Art Gallery with 64 of his paintings in powder and acrylics, when he was only five. 'Sanjiv had no interest in his exhibitions whatsoever and only agreed to visit with the bribe of a Dinky toy or if he could ride his bike inside the gallery". His second exhibition at the age of six was titled 'Small is Yet Beautiful', but this time the paintings were done in oils on canvas. By the time he was 13, he had held 10 major exhibitions: five in Sri Lanka and five internationally, in Belgium, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Singapore and the US. A handful of comments from his second exhibition were: "Sanjiv's art is Beautiful" - by former President J. R. Jayewardene. 'Small is also Big' - by former President R. Premadasa. "A delightful, charming and explosively colourful world" - by Film Director, Lester James Peiris. Sanjiv was as beautiful a child as were his paintings. And he grew up to be a handsome youth with noble traits. He had always been a loyal and absolutely dedicated friend. Although he was a vibrant teenager with all the desires and passions of youth, underneath he was an exceedingly sensitive person. In his mother's own words "He was too sensitive, too fragile inside, to contend with an unfeeling world". He was never hospitable to indecisiveness, disloyalty and hypocrisy. He studied at Royal College and then at the Colombo International School. Then he proceeded to University College, in London to read a Degree in Geography. He completed his first year successfully and at the end of the first semester of the 2nd year, he came down to Sri Lanka due to an illness, which turned out to be a sad prelude to a tragic ending. For, at the tender age of 19, Sanjiv was no more. He may have been taken because he was too precious to live in such a corrupted world. But he lives through his paintings, drawings and sketches. His death was not only a loss to his close-knit family but for the world of Art as well. Yet what he achieved within a span of 19 years, many could not have done even with a span of 60 years. Young he died, but he died as a man - with honour and accomplishments. After his death in 1991, his beloved mother, to whom he was very much attached to, decided to hold an exhibition of his work spanning his lifetime. One hundred and ten paintings from his earliest work beginning at 2 1/2 to his last sketches done just before his death at the age of 19, were on display at the National Art Gallery in an exhibition titled 'Beyond Life'. And now the paintings have been compiled into a 200 page book with the same title. 'Beyond life' will be launched on October 22, 2004, at Colombo Plaza. The launched will be followed by an exhibition of his paintings from October 23 to 24 at the same venue. 'Beyond life' is published by the Sanjiv Mendis Foundation and will be distributed by Selgraphics (Pvt.) Ltd. |
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