BENGALURU: Bengaluru-based artist Roshan Sahi has been interacting with autistic children since the time he had started working in schools as an art teacher. He always had a question about how a child, who is not a part of the regular school system, would feel.
Sahi is now coming up with an exhibition of his works and also conduct a painting workshop for autistic children and adults. “Seeing a physiological factor created by optical tactility is another way of touching reality. I try to capture those experiences in my art, which seem so fleeting and transient and yet, shape the very foundations of my understanding of the world around me,” he says.
Being a follower of Rabindranath Tagore and Mahatma Gandhi, he soon chose to give more meaning to art other than turning his profession into a commercial one. “It got me thinking about how children who are differently-abled must also have such a lively and creative world within them that needs to be shared in our culture,” he says. This was a turning point in his career and he focused on visiting schools for children and adults with special needs to engage with them in artistic ways. “Over the years, I have been involved professionally in the role of how art and education interweave,” he adds.
“My art attempts to break stereotypes of what is beautiful and aims to find a core and essence of reality. If we are to identify problems and come up with interesting solutions found in our current social or political system, it is how art can transform the way we see the world around us into a more humane culture,” Sahi says.
Being a believer of how art is meaningful to individuals at a personal level, he says, “My experience of interacting and facilitating those with special needs has been motivational for me and has also been a great learning experience.”
The show will be held at The Courtyard from Jan 9 to Feb 6.