HYDERABAD: CE catches up with artist Rajashree Nayak, whose work ‘The Middle Path’ is being showcased at the State Art Gallery this week. She takes us through the process of her ‘printmaking art’, chats about the themes her work covers, and more.
Her art is all about the contemporary woman who struggles and juggles between traditional values and the benchmark of modernity. “The traditional roots keep her grounded, she simultaneously accepts the modern world challenges wholeheartedly, and finds a middle path for her self-care and development,” artist Rajashree Nayak describes her muse. Her ongoing week-long show ‘The Middle Path’ at the State Art Gallery, Madhapur, is turning heads for the thoughts they provoke.
Her other works titled ‘Our Three Musketeers’, ‘My mother in me’, ‘Hybrids’, ‘Thread of Hope’, ‘Little Rays of Sunshine’ and ‘Only Juice’, among others, have become conversation starters at the exhibits.
Explaining her art form of printmaking, she says, “The process needs harmonious efforts of both physical involvement and the mind.
You have to visualise the final image before the process, and so have to be a very acute planner. Currently, I am doing something called etching - a reduction technic of woodcut and linocut medium of printmaking.”
She goes on to add that printmaking involves a long and tedious process of activities and needs considerable time to reach completion.
“It all depends on the size of your work and how much time you’re willing to give to each piece of work, using wood, zinc plate or a lino sheet. Struggling through each print process and finally getting the result is a fascinating and enjoyable journey in itself. The outcome on the paper is euphoria in its own sense. The interplay of the process of printmaking and the journey of my concepts keeps me hooked to printmaking each time I pull a print off the press. It is like undergoing and experiencing the same miracle as like a seed sown into the earth and nurtured to a beautiful tree with rich flowers, fruits and leaves,” says she.
Asked what made her choose her current theme, she says, “my works are more vocal about the present-day issues of contemporary women in society. The figurative characters in my artworks are common women in our routine life. The contemporary woman tries to establish herself in society. The complex value system keeps her mind tangled and occupied with the past or the future.
Even though life becomes rough and juggled, a part of the mind always tries to find ‘a thread of hope’ to weave her dream. One can easily comprehend the dilemma between two aspects of life, where one has to choose - struggle, thy name is life. It takes certain strength and fearlessness to hold all this and keep moving forward. This ‘middle path’ shows the way of living with a balanced view of, and growth in, life.”
Apart from printmaking, Rajashree has always been drawn to terracotta medium and clay work and loves to explore the varieties of other printmaking mediums like mezzotint, lithograph, viscosity etc. “Soon, I hope to take my art that talks about India onto a global platform. I have plans for solo and group shows too, in the coming months,” she signs off.