Curator Arjun Sawhney believes that digital art has not got its due yet. By Kritika Dua
Books and films are the two media that are untouched by generic divisions and frequently align with each other. They also have an immediate recall in the popular mindset and is perhaps one of the reasons that graphic designer Arjun Sawhney got in a talented bunch of artists who would combine their digital expertise with pop art and reinterpret famous book titles, characters and films.
This collaboration resulted in the show Ink, Reels and the Graphic gang, where “ink” is the metaphor for books, “reel” for films and “the graphic gang” predictably addresses the innovators of popular imagery.
The pieces of art included reinterpretations of Hollywood classics like Bladerunner, Out of Africa, The Godfather and Indian ones like Sholay and Pakeezah. Bladerunner featured Harrison Ford and Sean Young caught in a dystopian world comprising robots and humans. We are moving in a similar direction through the overarching arc of artificial intelligence whose limits we are yet to assess. Artist Manav Sachdev captured the essence of this interplay in a realistic portrait of Sean Young in a brilliant array of colours.
Breakfast at Tiffany was brought to life through a giant installation by Pushkar Thakur. Gulab Saggu did a black and white portrait of Sholay’s Thakur essayed by Sanjeev Kapoor. In a contemporary, grey world, the upright Thakur was his muse with meticulously worked on details. Mahatama Gandhi, too, was caught between a textured and flat reality.
Sawhney felt that we have a lot of noteworthy talent, especially in the field of digital art, that had not really been tapped into yet and thus had not got the due it deserved. “I wanted to take an initiative for bringing together accomplished graphic designers through this exhibition. Abroad, there are art galleries specifically dedicated to digital art and are appreciated by art enthusiasts. Our graphic artists are fighting for credibility in the mainstream space. There is not much awareness about it but I am hopeful that exhibitions like this will open more avenues for them. When the brush becomes the mouse, paints become tone and pixels, the pen becomes the letter board but imagination remains the driving factor, digital art is born. Furthermore, it was printed on oil on canvas,” said Sawhney, who runs a graphic designing studio.
On the curatorial process, he told us, “I selected participants by observing their work minutely. I admire their artwork as most of them have years of experience in graphic designing. I had a conversation with each one of them to gather how they perceived the show and the concept. Books and movies are the connecting tissue between people across borders as they are consumed around the world. So we chose them as our subjects. For the bookworms we have included On the Road by Jack Kerouac, Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie and many familiar titles. I gave them feedback and guidance on how they could go about their artwork. I did not interfere with their creative process and allowed them to express themselves freely while staying within the boundaries of the concept of the show. It was very interesting to witness the manner in which each artist interpreted the subjects in their works,” he added.
Tavleen Akoi Gill, the co-presenter for the show, said, “There is so much to explore in graphic and pop art and this show is just the tip of an iceberg. Hopefully, we will do many more shows in the future and discover budding talent.”
The show had a stellar line-up of graphic design talents — Chetana Vij, Thukral and Tagra, Divya Thakur, Gopika Chowfla, Gulab Saggu, Himanshu Dogra, Kapil Sharma, Manav Sachdev, Mickey Bardava, Namrata lenka, Pushkar Thakur et al.