Ravi Kashi- A Great Artist – writes Raghu Koppar
Here is an artist who draws the visuals of daily happenings in the city. It was the nice time when I talked to him. My friend and guide MJ Srikanth asked me to visit him. I visited him and when I entered his studio, there were colorful paintings and paper works. They are excellent. He himself make this paper which he learnt it from J.Parry at Glasgow School of Art, U.K. Every painting has a sentence written at the bottom. If you are an art lover read this.
Here is the brief information about Ravi sir.
Education: Ravi Kashi holds a B.F.A. (Painting) from the College of Fine Arts, Karnataka Chitrakala Parishat, Bangalore (1988), M.F.A. in Print-making from the Faculty of Fine Arts, M.S. University, Baroda (1990) and M.A. in English from Mysore University (1995). He has also studied handmade papermaking under J. Parry at the Papermaking Resource, Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow, U.K. as a grantee of the prestigious Charles Wallace India Trust in 2001.
Awards: Winner of several awards including the Kejriwal Young Artist Award and National Award in 42nd National Exhibition conducted by Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi (2000), Ravi has held solo shows in Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and Glasgow. He has participated in many group exhibitions and curated shows in India and abroad.
Here is the paper work titled as Pause. "Pause is a moment when action comes to a stand still or so it seems at least for the person who is watching a video on the screen," he explains. "With the pressing of a button any action can be controlled. All mayhem and murder (on screen) can be stopped... It is time for reflection and repose." And it is that moment he strives to capture in his three-dimensional works, which are meticulously constructed using cotton and jute fiber.
Eight "heads" with colored rings and stencil letterings (
Shoot), a set of 30-odd T-shirts with loud, printed matter splashed across them (
Chatter) and two impeccably fashioned chest protectors placed in a show-window (
Do You Feel Safe?) are part of the collection which have subdued violent motifs. His concern about all-pervading brutality finds subtle expression in
Your Turn Next, which features a pair of human torsos. One of them — with the image of a boy clutching a gun — has a background blurb which reads: "Stop Thinking." the other piece has the picture of a disconsolate boy and the blurb says: "Your Turn Next." The center piece of the show is derived from the title of the whole collection itself. Here, Ravi hangs a headgear, a shield and a couple of swords on a peg to denote that a soldier has just come home from the battlefront for a brief rest. Sadly, they also mean that he can''t possibly relax for long.
Ravi Kashi''s delicately rendered works carry silent warning signs and symbols of our troubled times. The manner in which he uses a fragile medium to convey his concerns and dilemmas is admirable.
Ravi Kashi can be contacted on 9845181622 E-mail: ravikashi@hotmail.com
So don’t miss to visit his studio.