Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Breaking the mold to voice aesthetic and political concerns

He is a restless and socially aware practitioner who inevitably lets out his aesthetic and political voices, applying his imagination, innovation and interpretations, in the process.

Not bound by any particular technique, he looks to break personal ground, by mixing up an array of styles and media including the internet, digital photography, typography, photocopies, charcoal etc.

Spotting the talent in him, Bose Krishnamachari included Prasad Raghvan’s works in a group show courtesy the Guild Art, Mumbai in 2007. Mumbai based Gallery BMB conceptualized by the renowned artist-curator presented the first solo show of this upcoming and talented artist in 2010 that provided an insight into his personal aesthetic.

He had borrowed the title from cinematic terminology, even tilting the jargon (calling it a ‘Tilt Shot’, he calls it, ‘Shot-Tilt’), playing out both in the mundane and the transcended. The idea of desire and false promises was explored in the series, as he stated, “We live in a society that constantly generates desire. We’re made into consuming subjects. There are a lot of false promises around us, which make us voracious consumers. The result is garbage and guilt. My idea is to analyze and understand desire and false promises through the creation of ‘false icons’ and the images of garbage, sin and guilt.”

His unique body of work has been widely exhibited at venues and events like ‘Dialogue’, W+K EXP, Delhi (2011); ArtGwangju, South Korea (2010); ‘The Trojan Works’, 1x1 Contemporary, Dubai (2010); ‘Everywhere is war’, Bodhi Art, Mumbai. ‘Freedom to March’, Lalit Kala Akademi/Ojas Art, Delhi (2010); Under The Banyan Tree’, ESSL Museum, Vienna (2010), ‘Public Enemy Number 1’, Exhibit 320, Delhi (2010); ‘Generation in Transition’, Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw (2010); ‘Indian popular culture & beyond’, Alcala31, Madrid (2009); ‘Video Wednesdays@ Gallery Espace’, Delhi; and ‘Everything’, Willem Baars Projects, Amsterdam (2008).

Prasad Raghvan can be described as an artist who breaks the mold to voice his intense aesthetic and political concerns.

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