How a simple newspaper sheet is becoming a canvas for collective expression in Bengaluru | Bengaluru News
Bengaluru: It was just another morning at Bangalore University (BU) visiting faculty member Puja Dhanuka’s house. As she sat with her morning coffee, with The Times of India’s May 23 edition open in front of her, a campaign on page 4 caught her eye.“Looks like paper. Acts like a shield,” the page read. It was TOI’s latest campaign against fake news. “Print is proof,” the page concluded.In the next few seconds, Puja had a spark, which is now taking shape in the printmaking room at BU’s department of visual arts in the sprawling 1,000-acre Jnanabharathi campus. The visual arts department faculty has invited professional artists from across the country to collaborate with them in creating a printmaking portfolio on the theme ‘Looks like paper. Acts like a shield.” Around 50 artists, comprising postgraduate students and professional printmakers, will reinterpret the idea through traditional printmaking techniques. A simple newspaper sheet is, thus, becoming a canvas for collective expression here.“That tagline made quite an impact on us. Being in the printmaking industry, those words resonate with what we believe,” said Puja.The printmaking art involves etching, woodcut, and aquatint processes. Using treated zinc plates, artists carefully etch their responses to the theme on the surface, layering their work. Others explore woodcut, a centuries-old technique in which images are carved into wood, inked, and printed by hand.“Printmaking needs a lot of patience but gives me a lot of peace,” said Meghana Gnanmurthy, a first-year postgraduate student in painting. Each print is soaked before ink transfer, making every impression an effort in discipline and detail. Akshay Gowda, a PG student in graphic art, said he felt strongly connected to the idea of using art to stand up for messages that matter.Text & textureIn a fast-moving and digital world, these young artists are slowing down — with ink-stained hands and hours spent over zinc and wood — to let their work speak through texture. “It’s important for students to understand the traditional methods of printmaking techniques, and these classes thus become vital,” Puja said.Artists are free to reinterpret the tagline in their own ways. “For instance, I made a woodcut of Covid times when people were wearing masks. Here, the mask is a shield,” Puja explained. Their work will be printed over the campaign on TOI.“When the idea struck me, I posted a message in our apartment group asking residents to share that day’s newspaper so that we could work on that page. But I received only a few. I realised it would be impossible to personally collect that day’s newspaper. So I contacted the TOI Bengaluru office. They helped me with 900 prints of that day’s paper,” Puja said.The papers are now being couriered to artists from outside Bengaluru in bundles. Each artist will get 18 papers and is expected to return 15 sheets with their work. The works will be made into a portfolio and finally presented at an exhibition.“The words in the tagline are very catchy. When an image sits next to the text, it will give a different meaning. That’s what will make this project interesting,” said Bhagya Ajaikumar, a guest faculty member who plans to do a linocut (a variant of relief printing in which a sheet of linoleum is used for a relief surface) for the project.“As artists, we use paper as a medium to express ourselves. Paper becomes a weapon when you put a message on it. As a newspaper, you have power in your hand. The message you gave in the tagline is powerful,” said Jeena Sara Giji, an artist and printmaker from Chennai, who is participating in the campaign.“Paper is like a shield; it can protect you. I have participated in printmaking initiatives before, and I found this interesting,” said Pritam Madhukar, an artist from Mumbai.(With inputs from Raksha Hosur Pradeep)
