1980s Kerala: The cosmic dust kicked up by the awareness about the social, cultural and technical changes happening around the world had led to the birth of art movements and artist collectives. Though these movements and collectives followed different trajectories over the decades, the luminosity and the reverberations of the original cosmic dust continued to fuel and nourish future artistic endeavours into later decades. These individual endeavours evolved into ecosystems – sometimes willed into existence by the individuals, but at other times, out of individuals naturally gravitating towards each other. Among the latter, the evolutionary gene manifested and blossomed into biomes/entities that, while being made up of the cosmic dust, have markedly individual hues and voices from the rest.

One such is Dakshinayan – a collective of ten Indian contemporary artists who began their artistic journey in the 1980s at College of Fine Arts Thiruvananthapuram.

The momentous events of the time not only influenced and shaped Dakshinayan’s perspectives, but also laid the foundation for the collaborative spirit that characterizes the art of the collective today. 

The collective, while being subaltern, differed from the anti-establishment genetics characterizing the other groups of the time and evolved into an inclusive ecology that revels in the possibilities of coexistence and cross pollination erupting from both complementary as well as conflicting personal views and realities. Consisting of painters, sculptors and graphic artists, the collective is not bound by any ideological / philosophical / stylistic / thematic boundaries but is united by the common love for humanity and Art and is strengthened by its heterogeneity. More evolutionary than revolutionary, taking art to the common man is the mitochondrial force that fuels Dakshinayan’s direction.

Artocracy is the possibility of co-existence of diverse personal experiences, realities and viewpoints. It is the convergence of artistic styles, themes and media from Dakshinayan artists who are and whose art is as diverse as the individuals around us. 

Artocracy is also the possibility of Art being available to all, in the richness of its variety, newness of its format and accessibility.

Thus, Artocracy is, ultimately, the democracy of Art.