suresh babu maddilety

Biography

Suresh Babu Maddilety (b. in 1971, in Medukurthi/India) is a multidisciplinary artist working with video art, paintings, and installations. He graduated from the College of Fine Arts in Hyderabad and received an MFA from the University of Hyderabad in 1998.

In his practice, he combines science and philosophy into visual manifestations using digital media, text, photography, paint, found images and trivial objects. He is inspired by the strange inherent characteristics of the elements and procedures that constitute our world, the universe that surrounds us, and their ephemeral qualities.

His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, earning him top honour at the 47th All India Art Exhibition by the Hyderabad Art Society in 1988. He is the finalist in; The Ars Electronica (2021), Mellow Art Award (2021), Art Slant Prize (2018), Arte Laguna Prize (2015) among others. He is currently based in Hyderabad.

Artist Statement

I combine science and philosophy into visual manifestations using digital media, text, photography, painting, found images and trivial objects.

I am fascinated by how things change over time, like the cycle of seasons or nature. I use art to explore these ideas and I think of my art like a puzzle. I am always searching for connections between different ideas and materials. I believe that everything is connected and constantly changing.

My art practice is based on the theory of Conformal Cyclic Cosmology (CCC) by physicist and mathematician Sir Roger Penrose’s. His theory suggests a cyclical view of the universe, offering an alternative to the traditional Big Bang model.  I view my work as an ongoing project, part of a larger task within artistic discourse and practice.

My art also reflects how even the most minor things, like atoms, are part of a bigger picture. I consider the image a visual depiction of atoms. Using various techniques, such as digital collage, new media, and traditional painting, I playfully transform the basic elements of matter and the cosmos—atoms and galaxies—into recognizable figures, objects, and landscapes. By viewing all materials as atoms, I explore how mediums change naturally as time passes.

I do not see my art as finished products but as ongoing experiments. I am driven by the perpetual cycle of matter’s evolution, continuously moving forward towards the future. I aspire for my work to spark curiosity and encourage others to continue exploring, creating, and innovating.

Artwork Descriptions

1. Microscopicism
2. Universe Constructivism
3. Organic Photography
4. Found the Space for Art
5. Pronouncism
6. Social Liquids
7. Artifact Materialism
8. Ovalism

Microscopicism explores the unseen material world around us. It is currently a text-based series of artworks, intending to function as an aspiration and starting point for future artistic interactions with essential materials we cannot see. Scientists deal with these mediums to understand how our universe, ecosystems and bodies function. Artists can approach these microscopic objects within visual representations. While scientists must be pragmatic and maintain a rigid systematic procedure, artists can employ a more creative and insightful process to examine similar hypotheses.

Microscopicism aims to describe the finest qualities in the universe by making indiscernible processes, like photosynthesis and cell cycles, perceptible. My aspiration is that future artists will find ways to make these phenomena accessible to everyone through their artworks.

My initial motivation was figuring out how to conceive a traditional still life study within an actual atom’s microworld, challenging thus stereotypical connections of reality with tangibility.

In this series of digital media artworks, I visualize an artful usage of our universe’s physical forms. For each composition, I used galaxies’ images from NASA’s space telescope. These galaxies functioned as “bricks”, building representational forms. “Universe Constructivism 01” looks like a house. “Universe Constructivism #02” depicts a mountain and lake landscape.

In my practice, visual representations function as models for future realizations. The ideal medium for the specific one is galaxies. While the works are digital, in the distant future, artists might create art through actual galaxies -as today with land art. These conceptual artworks actually invite us to contemplate ―with admiration and awe― over future scientific and creative explorations. They aim to investigate artistic representational qualities regarding different mediums and their potentials while being playfully critical of the scale in contemporary monumental installations. Even the most enormous contemporary installations would seem tiny in front of a potential galaxy work.

I created this composition by selecting and arranging a series of photographs from Flickr. However, these images are not the entire artwork. My intention was to generate a personal response from the viewers, who will create their own story based on how these images make them feel.

Each viewer’s unconscious uniquely analyzes these images. These photographs are unsettling and might conjure up specific fears or anxieties. Through this work, I would like to imply that the unconscious mind functions like a camera, which takes a still image of a brief moment in time (like a snapshot) and reflects it to us for contemplation.

My initial inspiration was the very photographic process. The work aims to question photography’s objectivity and to challenge photography-based artworks

This video was created using Blender, a 3D computer graphics software program. It is an animation of a large rock in a minimal abstract environment.

The drawing itself is not significant. I just placed a rock to fill up the space. Advertising uses model graphics containing generic images and placeholder typography to create templates for future designs. My practice refers basically to this process.

The rock, the ground it sits on, and the surrounding landscape are placeholders. Through imagination and creativity, someone can construct new forms within these structures. I explore the, exciting although alarming, potential of using physical matter in unexpected ways for creating art. Future artists might generate artworks inside mountains, atoms, celestial objects or even the human body.

Inspired by Graffiti art, I aspire to visualize new places for artistic experimentation, questioning thus the surfaces of artistic images and challenging the processes of visual representation’s ideas.

Pronouncism is a multidisciplinary series of artworks utilizing audio, video, and text. I randomly typed letters using the alphabet of Telugu, my native language. The words formed from this amalgamation of letters are meaningless and absurd. When I put my made-up words into the Google translation app, I can listen to how the AI software’s voice pronounces these unique vocabulary objects.

Pronouncism opens unique routes of thought. These abstract words could be manipulated into artworks, evolving to a visual vocabulary produced by the above randomized processes.

Throughout this work, I aim to question the meaning of specific words’ pronunciation and the whole process of visual audio ideas.

Social Liquids are inspired by the different qualities and characteristics that materials assume through periodic physical change. Like, for example, when coal becomes a diamond over time. I see all materials equally as atoms, and my works recreate the process of reconfiguring and making new entities the way nature does. In this series of video performances, I create a new element by bringing together familiar objects like municipal water and garden flowers in order to observe the evolution of these items and, eventually create further ephemeral amalgamations that become a part of the creative life cycle.

My main interest in this body of work is the exact procedure by which materials evolve; that is why it consists of carefully recorded video documentation of the process. This work aims to challenge artistic processes that insist on materials’ static qualities and characteristics.

Materialism is one of the major philosophical concepts that my work concerns. According to its principles, the matter is the fundamental substance of the universe and defines all forms of creation. These forms are then differentiated with various attributes.

From an aesthetic standpoint, Artifact Materialism is a conceptual visualization of this philosophical theory. Every object tells a story, and my paintings seek to narrate their story from the inside out. I consider each of the objects in my paintings equal to a single atom. A flower is an atom, as is an umbrella. In nature, these items possess many different angles. However, my paintings synthesize the surface area to a single angle or vantage point. Moreover, behind each canvas, a magnet is placed as a metaphor for natural powers. This work aims to question the one-dimensional study of philosophies and common representation, as objects can be seen here from many angles.

Our eyes perform magic for us. When we look at any object in a landscape, perspective renders forms to be smaller in the distance and larger in the foreground. Before conventional perspective (i.e., one- and two-point perspective), artists used a reverse one, in which objects in the front were smaller than those in the back. In this series of paintings, I employ another conceptual perspective that I call Ovalism.

Using Ovalism, I extend and distort the proportion of one angle in relation to the others. For instance, when viewed from a side angle, a wheel becomes circular, and when seen from the front, it turns into an oval. When I apply paint to the surface of the canvas, I freeze the distorted oval and continue to portray it from every angle. In Ovalism, one angle proportions into every other angle. This body of work is influenced by cubism’s practice, questioning thus the visible size and form of objects.

CV

SURESH BABU MADDILETY
Born 1971, Medukurthi, Andhra Pradesh, India.
Lives and works in Hyderabad.
https://artsted.com/profile/portfolio

EDUCATION:
Graduation: 1986-1992; B.F.A J.N.T.U. College of fine arts, Hyderabad.
Post-Graduation: 1996-1998; M.F.A University of Hyderabad.

FINALIST:

Special prize winner, Mellow Art Award 2021
For video work in IAR International Artist Residency 2020- Napoli (Italy).
For installation work in YICCA Art contest 2017/2018 – Milan (Italy).

1st 2018 Art Slant Prize juried winner, USA.
For installation work in YICCA Art contest 2017- Rome (Italy).
For installation work in Art Laguna Prize 2015- Venice (Italy).
For installation work in Premio Combat Prize2015- Livorno (Italy).

SELECTED FOR ART FESTIVALS:
The Ars Electronica Festival 2021, Austria.
Festival DeSidera, Italy.
Modigliani Opera Vision, Italy.

ARTISTS SELECTION FIRST PHASE:
Air Land 3.0 INSIDE LAND organized by the Quasi Quadro association, 2020, Turin (Italy).

AWARDS:
47th All India Art exhibition by the Hyderabad art society, 1988.

ONE MAN SHOW:
On 13th Sep 1998, at C.I.E.F.L, Hyderabad.

GROUP SHOWS:
ICAC art gallery group show, 2022, Ahmedabad, India.
Round Lemon international online show2021- UK
PITCH collective video mapping, 2021- Russia
Finalists Exhibition -YICCA Art contest 2017/18- Milan (Italy).
Finalists Exhibition – YICCA Art contest 2017/- Rome (Italy).
Finalists Exhibition – Art Laguna Prize 2015 -Venice (Italy).
Finalists Exhibition – Premio Combat Prize 2015- Livorno (Italy).
International Gallery Of The Arts (IGOA) 2017.

ARTIST IN RESIDENCY:
Artist Residency Programme By Kerala Lalit Kala Academy, 2017, India.

PUBLICATION:
Artists of the Month, October 2021, Wendy.network.
Artist profiles, May 1918, ArtSlant.

EXHIBITION PARTICIPATION:
J.N.T.U. College of Fine Arts Annual Exhibitions;
1988,1989,1990,1991.
All India Art Exhibitions, The Hyderabad Art Society;1988,1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.
P.S. Telugu University Exhibition of Art, Hyderabad; 1997.

ARTIST CAMPS: Andhra Pradesh Young Artists Camp by A.P. Govt., 1997,1998,1999,2000