BENGALURU:Dimple Shah is a well-known printmaking artist in the city who tries to express her works through a combination of approaches using printmaking, theatre and installations.
It is a unique approach and one that has won her praise and laurels. Some would recall the Basvangudi Live Art Project back in 2014 that aimed to highlight the contributions of one of the oldest localities in Bengaluru, its people and institutions, through performance art and installations. In another project called Bangalore Garden Reloaded, Dimple made an installation of a ‘cement box’ to convey a sense of claustrophobia at the increase of concrete and the shrinking of greenery.
She says, “Printmaking involves a lot of technicalities compared to painting. One has to know how to use acids, the chemical reactions behind it to make an artwork, using of plates such as those made of zinc, copper plate used for printing, working with crayons. All these aspects excited me that excited me a lot,” she says.
Printmaking entails making use of plates on which the designs are carved. These could range from wood to copper. Designs are carved on wood and then inked and impressed on paper or canvas. In another technique zinc plates are etched in nitric acid and lines are carved and then inked.”In printmaking, one has to take note of even small changes and variations. For example one should know how much acid, gum or water is needed to say get the impression of a cloud or how much time it would take to get certain designs,” she says.
Dimple graduated in painting from the Ken School of Art in the city and then proceeded to do her masters in printmaking from the Maharaja Sayajirao University, Baroda. Soon after she won the prestigious CommonWealth Award that took her to Scotland as part of a residency program at the Glasgow Print Studio. On the popularity of printmaking in India and the city, Dimple says that it still needs a lot of catching up.