Trotsky Marudu Maruthappan is another artist whose works are closely linked with the socio-political happenings in and around the country. Someone who has grown up seeing anti-war, anti-Nazi posters, and was introduced to Russian posters and illustrations, the brutal images of history were etched in his mind from a very young age. His paintings were an offshoot of his close interactions with war-oppressed communities and people in the war, whom he calls martyrs. He says the ground realities, the harrowing scenes of the Sri Lankan Civil War, the deaths and disappearances, the sight of mothers holding the photos of their dead sons, were powerful moments for him that he felt he needed to document them through his paintings and books such as ‘Maveer Nadukargal’ and ‘Irandu Seyaligal’. He says, “For an artist, silence is impossible; how can one who breathes art remain without expressing himself?” He has been an artist of the people. In his words, “I will be with my fellow citizens through my art.”
Meanwhile, Vasugi Bhaskar, editor at Neelam Publication, alludes to the wars around the world, and says that his solidarity is in trying to understand them — the discrimination, their geopolitics, their voices. Vasugi asserts that his work itself is a way of protest. He says, “I am just trying to replicate a part of life — the events happening in my life.” He goes on, “Without politics, you cannot create anything.” While drawing parallels with the situation in the home country, he says his work is capturing his immediate environment: the oppression of the Dalits, the apathy of the world, and their ignorance when it comes to standing with them.
Vasugi believes that art is a space of freedom; it should be able to democratise. He, however, points out the situation in India and rues that artists have been shunned when their works condemn the system. Their films are banned, their works are shrouded. “If we relax restrictions, many artists would come up with their own voices,” he suggests.