Poster Boy

Graphic designer and avid movie buff Prasad Raghavans art might seem cut-and-dried at first with the air-brushed aesthetics of pop art.

Written by Anjuly Mathai
May 19, 2010 05:55 AM IST

3 min read

Delhi artist Prasad Raghavans art tramples on the terrain of world cinema

Graphic designer and avid movie buff Prasad Raghavans art might seem cut-and-dried at first with the air-brushed aesthetics of pop art. A second look will reveal a bevy of jagged ends. I portray minute socio-political and psychological issues of human beings through my art, says the 41-year-old Delhiite,whose works deal with the themes of desire,false promises and consumerism. His debut solo show,titled Shot Tilt,on at Mumbais Gallery BMB till June 28,is one such attempt. The artist borrows the term from cinematic terminology where the director changes the angle of perception with a tilt shot,thereby seeing things in a new light.

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The show features 10 serigraph panels called Decalogue,( see picture) two oil paintings,a video adaptation,a huge sculptural installation titled And the Ships Sail Away and a set of drawings. All the works are given the titles of films from around the world. Decalogue,for example,is based on Polish filmmaker Krzysztof Kieslowskis film that loosely hinges on the ten commandments of the Bible. The artworks are based on visuals triggered by the films or pertinent issues that they raise, says Raghavan. And the Ships Sail Away contains cargo captioned with taglines of advertisements,that are false promises to the consumers. LGs tagline,for example,is Lifes Good, he says,How exactly is it so?

Art critic JohnyML describes Raghavans art as post-poster art. According to him,Raghavans the only artist in the contemporary Indian art scene who uses the constituent elements of posters to create works which are fundamentally different from the quality and quantity of posters.

After working in advertising firms like Saatchi & Saatchi and Ogilvy & Mather,Raghavan formed a film club at the basement of a rented apartment in Chittaranjan Park,in 2004,called A:DOOR-The Worlds Best Movies Free. The poster of Alfred Hitchcocks Birds that he designed for the club,went on to win the Silver Lion at the Cannes Festival in 2005. It also marked his foray in to art.

His other inspiration was artist Bose Krishnamachari. Id met Bose once in Delhi and then in Mumbai. He said hed like to exhibit some of my work, says Raghavan. His first group exhibition,again in Mumbai was curated by Krishnamachari in 2007.

Krishnamacharis voice is enthusiastic when talking about his protégé. I like to spot new talents and make them superstars, he says. With a mentor like him,Raghavan (once described by artist Riyas Komu as cool in an Andy Warholian sense) might well be on his way to stardom.