The road to art was an exploratory journey born out of serendipity for Rita Prasad. It was not a conventional route for an artist who grew up in one of the most culturally and historically significant cities in the world. Her story is the epitome of what talent combined with discovery and guidance can do.
From Serendipity to Formal Education
Art was something that got caught Rita accidentally. She was casually flipping through a drawing or sketching pad as if she were still in high school. It was then that a keen teacher spotted her natural talent and urged her to apply for art schools. Even though she was quite reluctant at first, Rita listened to her and passed the entrance interviews which were now paving way for her entry into her artistries.
After graduating in psychology, she studied art at Banaras Hindu University, and was trained in sculpture, painting,printing making and history of Art. This early exposure built a strong base for her technical ability. But it was so at this time the second important figure—mutual to these families—the famous stone sculptor Balbir Singh Katt would come in a big way influencing Shahabuddin. Singh identified Rita’s potential as a sculptor, and persuaded Rita to take up the medium.
The Exploration of Sculpture and Materiality
However, it was under the tutelage of Singh that Rita started exploring sculpture, trying her hands on materials in the process. This history was in part developed from investigating the nature of materials such as stone. While stone was traditionally thought of as something massive and heavy, Rita began studying the opportunities it offers for thin, linear compositions. This kind of experimentation was a significant change from traditional methods and presaged much of her future work.
After graduating from Sir JJ institute of Applied Art, Rita explored her abilities at MS University and realized an obvious style was beginning to develop which she was able to fine tune. During this time, she presented work in her first solo-show called chewy everyday pleasures (studies in leather), which included a leather chair that she had made that resulted from questioning the vacuous nature of comfort. This work exemplified her penchant for both a functional and conceptual approach.
The Influence of Personal Experience
My personal experiences has shaped my store art work!! Through her personal tribulations and emotional challenges in the fight as President between 2012 to 2015. In this sense, this phase is characterized by the creation of art that explored her personal struggles and experiences, mostly in form of installations made of unusual materials. One example is a leather sculpture that was designed to age, representing the wear and tear of life on mankind.
At this time her method and notion was a want to rupture with mainstream prospective mediums of art & discover latest one. This test phase was not just a matter of technique but as a representation of her changing artist identity. Her practice became a lens through which to articulate a nuanced biographical accounting referencing individual events and experiences in an expansive socio-cultural touchpoint `
Reflection and Innovation: The Later Years
As an artist, Rita gradually began to emphasize found objects in her work and investigate their metamorphosis. Travel and the erosion of materials influenced her use of fabric waste, aged objects (broken maquettes), which are essential components of her practice. This marked the beginning of her new direction in which she used metal uniquely as a way to transcribe materials, embodying their themes of impermanence and entropy.
During this time Ramesh learned to make molds from bits and pieces of scrapped metal and cast them in metal. Not only did this illustrate the ephemeral nature of human life, it also crafted an emotional simile between human lives and old forgotten items. Themes of death and the repercussions of societal and environmental changes were common to his work.
Conclusion
The art of serendipity, and how it can change your story radically through ART; with Rita Prasad As her induction into the ceramics world was purely coincidental, so are the agenda-less processes and evolving experimentation in materiality that follow Rita throughout her career. Her narrative demonstrates how seizing happenstance can shape the pursuit of passion and how our personal experiences inform all creative pursuits. Rita’s creative style combined with deep introspection lend much to the world of art, preserving humankind and changing realms of existence.
