Ravi Kashi's artistic inspirations

The endless surge in consumption and the advertisements, which feed this frenzy of consumerism, have been artist Ravi Kashi’s focus. He takes the images from media, advertisements and images of city streets as a starting point for his work and subverts the end result. Here are the excerpts of an interview with talented artist Ravi Kashi courtesy The Arts Trust.

He states: "I am a witness to his timesbut not a mute spectator. I question the language of desire they speak. This along with the awareness of the process of meaning-generation in visual language becomes the content of my work."

He has experimented in various media like prints, glass painting, collage and assemblage as well as handmade paper other than painting and drawing. He has also been part of various interactive public art projects that have added variety to his work and expanded my vocabulary.

Regarding his viewers’ response, he states: “They come from various backgrounds, though the urban viewers relate to my work more as it is their immediate reality and it is something they can identify with that I depict. The number of visitors at Shanghai Art fair overwhelmed me. Every day thousands of visitors came and one could really make out that they were appreciating the works even though language was a barrier to initiate a discussion. I had displayed 7 paintings and 9 books cast in paper pulp there. The content of these works were related to my concerns mentioned above. “

Through his art he often focuses on Bangalore, his home city. He elaborates: “I have seen Bangalore changing gradually and dramatically over the years. The change the cityscape is going through is indeed enormous. It’s getting transformed into a façade of glass and chrome buildings. I try to capture the process behind this changed ambience and culture, and the resultant changes in the aspirations in people it has induced."