What question do you keep coming back to in your arts practice?
“Does this support the life I am trying to create?”
What discipline, other than your own, do you draw most from?
“Spirituality, Philosophy, Quantum Physics. These disciplines help me find meaning and purpose both for my ownself and my practice. They are frameworks that help me make sense of the world through ancient wisdom and modern science and exhibit a core that often connects. Through their constructs they help make visible the interconnectedness of everything within and outside us. They hint towards ideas, concepts and causes which is what the design practice at the studio (Anugraha) focusses on. (Designing for everything that doesn’t promote consumerism: where products are by products and the focus is the intangibles). At an artistic level, very often these culminate into pieces of writing or installations which have been part of curated frameworks and exhibited or performed for various audiences to engage.”
What do you enjoy most about the process of creating new work and what recurring challenges do you encounter?
“The opportunity to put myself in other people’s shoes each time we design for them is a unique offering in itself. The exposure to different worldviews and life trajectories of people or immersion in subject matter that is cause based or idea based is recurrent in the practice in order to be able to produce deliverables (communicate both visually and textually) that represent them. This engagement provides varied perspectives and allows for new learning almost every single day. I find this very fulfilling and feel grateful to be in a profession that allows such trysts. Designing for the unorganised sector and making art (tangible) to communicate intangibles with the hope of evoking them (intangibles) can be challenging but at the same time fulfilling.”
How do you feel the arts ecosystem can/should evolve in the city?
“Integrating exposure to art in pre primary and primary school curriculum would open up new doors of perceptions in the minds and hearts of young children. Engagement with the arts could then become a part of their lives as they grow. The arts hold an inherent potential (in my view) as inspiration, refuge and an avenue of immersion to discover ones own self. This can bring meaning, hope and joy to people’s lives. The city in the recent years has several art offerings. What it needs is receptive audiences which could avail these offerings. Early exposure to art would create these.”
