Hyderabad: Installations of layered acrylic sheets to fresh expressions that derive style from folk traditions, if one hasn’t read the brochure, the fact that the art show, An Infinite Journey, showcases art by school children would be hard to swallow. Six students of Oakridge International school, Aditi Lakhtakia, Anuradha Ray, Apurupa Balasubramanyam, Deeksha Sanjay, Hema Harika Chandana and Veda Kasireddy bring some pretty serious topics to the walls and the floors.
Hema Harika’s installations greet you first. An inviting lawn spread out on the floor as visuals of butterflies hang from the roof. Pointing at her other works on display, Hema says, “All these works on display are part of the process of self discovery. I started off with self-portraits and I experimented a lot with the media, because I wanted to paint a layer and peel the layer off.”
Such is the complex process of these budding artists. While Hema plans to pursue art at JNTU, two of these artists have already landed admissions in Massachusetts College of Art and Design.
Aditi, who is set to pursue jewelry design at Massachusetts, used the folk traditions of Goud in her works. “It’s a lot of intricate work, so it took hours of practice. Also, the challenge was to ensure that the folk art fit aesthetically with what I wanted to paint,” she says.
Veda, who will be accompanying Aditi to study illustration, picked an oral Telugu tradition. “I wanted to portray the words such as ‘anger is your enemy’ in images,” she says pointing at a brilliant sketch. However, not all these students will pursue art. Anuradha says, “I wanted to pursue psychology. But I understand how important and relevant art is to the field of study.”
While they were mentored by their teachers M.S. Vaasu, Piu Mahapatra, Ramakrishna G, Visweswara Rao, they were granted “all the creative freedom” to follow their instincts and that perhaps was the key factor to this awe-inspiring show.
