On a Paper Trail
Paperwork artist Rahul Solanki shot to popularity when his artwork made its way into the Mumbai International Airport and Hyatt Regency hotel in Chennai. A native of Indore, Rahul says although drawing, painting and artwork came quite naturally to him, the only two careers they were taught to pursue was medicine and engineering.
“When we were in school, the Internet boom opened doors to a wide array of career opportunities but I still never thought I could make a career with art. Plus, nobody in my family had ever pursued a career in this field,” he admits. Then at the Indore Fine Arts Government College Rahul went on to learn different art forms like portraits, clay modelling, and casting. “While college is a great platform to learn fine arts, the field is such that, unless you have keen interest in it, it can’t be taught,” says the artist.
After college, Rahul kept practicing art at home and took up assignments on the side. He met artists such as Rajeev Sethi and architect, Alfaz Miller who played an instrumental role in bringing his artwork to the fore. “When these artists saw my work, they helped me display it on their website, and sell it. I even did a lot of commission work, like the Beehive design in Hyatt Regency in Chennai,”he says.
Talking about how he envisions his work on paper collages, Rahul explains that he gets inspired by his surroundings. “In some cases, I’m given a theme to work on. Otherwise, I explore different concepts, based on the observations I make every day, around me. There is a temperament to art, but what will transpire from it is not under our control,” he says.
Rahul explains his paper artworks ‘Through the Vision’, which depicts men and women in metro cities of varied shapes and sizes. “If you observe, people come to big cities with many dreams and hopes. Some of them blindly follow a routine while some come in search of individuality. For some, the city even moulds them and alters their perspective and how they look at things. Day by day, the glare of the city changes their vision. In this quarrel of circumstances their specks also change with time,” he elaborates, concluding that, “Generally when people wear these specs, they can see only what is there on the glasses. That is the perspective I envisioned bringing into this artwork.”
Going forward he wants to experiment with different dimensions. His recent artwork in this space includes the ‘On hire’ series, in which he acrylic paints on toy autorickshaws. Rahul also plans to display his artwork at the Mumbai Art Fair in Lalit Kala Akademi. “In the coming year, I wish to do international shows. That’s something I am working on too,” he concludes.