Text it up

The image is a universal language. However, even an artist dedicated to the principals of images cannot deny the importance of text.

Sometimes a bridge between the word and the image exists; often the war between these two disciplines is unnecessary

The image is a universal language. However, even an artist dedicated to the principals of images cannot deny the importance of text. Take the instance when at a recent beer workshop with brewery expert Johan De Deyn one was informed, the first beer was brewed by Egyptians. Deyn furnished an image of a hieroglyphic that depicted Egyptians working with large clay pots or brewing chambers for beer. The clincher for the image was the text. It confirmed this was not wine, whisky or rum, but beer that was brewed.

Egyptian Art is perhaps the best example of the harmonious existence of text and image on the same picture-plain.

This is not always the case since in many instances there is a struggle between the two forms of communication. Artists usually do not employ text to give only information.

8220;I use text but its choice and placement is random. It does not have to mean anything. In fact I treat the letters as I would treat a figure or an abstract form,8221; says artist Prabhakar Kolte, who comes from a school of thought where the approach to typography was from a purely graphic nature. Other artists like the celebrated V S Gaitonde and Shankar Palsikar, who incidentally taught Kolte, also emphasised that text should be used to show rather than tell something.

More recently artist Baiju Parthan decoded images into text. The ASCII decoder, a technological device that has given geeks the jollies for almost a decade now, has the ability to translate a jumble of words into an image and vice versa. 8220;The image and letter relation has a long history. I8217;m a self-confessed geek but also in art when the decoder is employed in context of an image it brings into play a cryptogram,8221; says the artist whose pare and butterfly image was recently displayed at an exhibition titled third_life, curated by Gitanjali Dang.

The young Abhishek Hazra also plays with word and image. His use of text is to convey transience. 8220;Matter is in a constant state of flux. The text consists of formulas that change matter, others talks of grammatical changes,8221; says the artist. This however cannot be divined at first glance one must get acquainted with Hazra8217;s work.

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8220;In the context of art text, ideally, shouldn8217;t be used in an illustrative manner. While the comic strip and graffiti art has its place, for me it is important to transform the text and the mode in which it is used,8221; says Jitish Kallat who often has text in his art works like Public notice. Igniting

Pandit Nehru8217;s speech on the eve of India8217;s Independence, Kallat creates an ambiguous dimension8212;suggesting both the hard-won struggle for independence and its potential dissolution.