Four art mediums redefine epic in B’luru

As Below, So Above brings the epic into a contemporary gaze through the works of senior artiste Raghupati Bhat, whose meticulous line drawings are rooted in the Valmiki Ramayana and three Mysuru-based artistes – KJ Pavan (photography), R Bhanupakash (Marquetry) and N Ranganatha (Hand-painted Type). “I wanted to create a space where old knowledge breathes through new hands,” shares the curator Amshula Prakash.

‘THE EPICS, MYTHS AND LEGENDS BELONG TO ALL OF US’

“The exhibition centres on senior artist Raghupati Bhatt and the three other ar tistes respond to Bhatt’s works through their own creative vocabularies. Pawan’s photography captures garadi manes, the traditional wrestling houses of Mysuru,” explains Amshula. She continues, “Wood-inlay artiste Bhanu Prakash used the Mysore tech nique of inlaying natural wood for texture and colour. Ranga nath revives a fading tradition of signboard through his hand-paint ed rendition of a Kannada proverb. Together, the works suggest that mytholo gy does not sit behind glass cases; it lives in wrestlers’ halls, in wood grains, in street cor ners, in photographs and proverbs.”

‘The title comes from the Emerald Tablet, but I flipped it for a reason’

“The original phrase is As above, so below. But while curating, I realised the stories we draw from are grounded in human life — in what happens here. So I reversed it to As Below, So Above. What we project, what we feel, what unfolds in our world — it all travels upward. The sky isn’t separate from us,” shares Amshula.


Experience As Below, So Above at KAASH till December 21 from 6.30pm.



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