Reconnecting with nature

Curiosity is the mother of all innovations, as the saying goes, and Avani Rao Gandra, artist and founder of ICONART Gallery, Hyderabad, is a living example of how a curious mind can work wonders. Avani, a PhD in contemporary art, has worked as art critic and successfully curated several art shows on painting, printmaking, sculpture, new media and installations. As an artist and photographer, she has participated in solo and group shows and has received the Arts Think South Asia fellowship sponsored by German Goethe Centre and British Council (2014 - 2015).

Her journey as an artist has gone through several phases and now, in her own words, she is bursting with creative ideas. “For the past one year, I am getting exciting ideas and have started experimenting with new media,” she says. Many of her recent works are an extension of her imaginative mind. Her latest show — Hear the lotus bloom (painting) and A Sooting Respiration (installation) — that coincides with the World Environment Day (June 5), talks about how the changes in the environment affect her psyche.

“The installation is in the form of a lung. As an artist, it’s my poetic expression of the inside of a lung which we cannot see. Nowadays, people are more concerned about the outer beauty while the inside lies in neglect,” she says. Avani further adds, “Somewhere, we are losing our connection with nature. I have tried to bring all these things to the fore.”

Explaining her challenges, Avani says that setting up an installation is not difficult, but getting inspired by an idea is. “One has to fit the idea within the available materials and they should speak as well,” says Avani.

Hear the lotus bloom is presented through varied hues of pinks and blues. “When a lotus blooms in the morning, if you are really quiet inside, I believe you can hear it taking breath and opening up. My intention was to urge people to slow down to that level when you can hear nature speak and be in tune with it,” she explains.

Of late, Avani’s works have been on the lines of new media by using elements right from nature and dealing with various issues mankind faces. This show is a part of such series of exhibitions Avani is hoping to come up with. “It more or less questions our existence and where we are headed to. Our next exhibition is Family Albums which deals with personal identity, displacement and memories,” she explains.