Shail Choyal, Ravi Kumar Kashi and Madhavi Parekh

New Delhi-based Art Perspective hosts a group show of a series of original prints that have been enhanced with drawings. Among the three participating artists are Shail Choyal, Ravi Kumar Kashi and Madhavi Parekh. Below is what they have to say about their works on view:

Ravi Kumar Kashi’s keenness to ‘let go’

According to the artist, we are in the habit of 'holding' on to things. We buy and hoard objects and see them as possessions. It becomes an extension of our personality and at times it substitutes us. We also hold hundreds of emotions/thoughts in us without expressing them.

"In this series, where etching and drawing has been combined, I was looking into various ideas of 'holding' and 'letting go' of possessions. Letting go feels like unburdening oneself. Since it is the same matrix that continues all through, it is like opening all the pages of the book and looking at them simultaneously. Only in breathing can we neither hold nor let go, both are necessary," the artist elaborates.

Shail Choyal portrays Krishna

The artist depicts an episode from Bhagvatpuran in which Lord Krishna plays the divine flute and the resonance mesmerizes the cows to return home is the basis of my work. The imagery of the cow has been one of Shail Choyal’s favorite motifs.

The artist reveals” “I love to paint, etch and sculpt the cow in its various moods - and aim to project a dramatic tension through juxtaposition of the allegorical with the real. Use of landscape through pencil drawings around the flute player is neither religious nor historical but sensuous and other worldly. The drama here episode may look absurd and ironic but, I aim to balance it with the nostalgia I confront in everyday life".

Madhavi Parekh’s childhood memories

The artist reminisces how she spent her childhood in a small village Sanjaya in Gujrat where people used to celebrate all festivals. She recounts: “I used to enjoy Christmas a lot as a friend were Christians. The image of Christ always remained as important to me as Durga and Kali. As an artist, when I visited Jerusalem, all my childhood memories revisited me fresh and thus the icon of Christ became a part of my work."