A formless form, something vague perfumed by divinity, spirituality and humanity in a visual form. Art, in itself, is quite subjective and depends mostly on the perception of the viewer. Visual art can take many forms and one such form is calligraphy. Now, what we learned in school perhaps goes far beyond what one could even fathom and an artiste like Nikheel Aphale helps put this into reality through his solo exhibition Nirakar Aakar, presented by Artisera, which translates to a ‘formless form.’
Dividing the series into three parts — divinity, spirituality and humanity — the exhibition is quite personal to Nikheel as he explores the devanagari script to create contemporary works of art. The script is of his own mother tongue — Marathi.
In conversation with the artist, we get insight into how the intent behind focusing on this particular script was to draw much-deserved attention to it, which it hasn’t received for a very long time. “There are many concepts which are very formless and it’s very difficult to interpret through forms, like the concepts of divinity, spirituality and humanity. So, my attempt is to interpret them or try to give them certain forms. This is my interpretation of giving them a form, through calligraphy or the letters,” begins Nikheel.
The power that words hold comes into play quite strongly for Nikheel as in his study of calligraphy at his graduation, he understood the art of using letter forms as an image to convey a story, something which only photography was understood to do. This fascination later led to him being exposed to several calligraphers in Mumbai, attending exhibitions and further indulging in experimental work.
“There is a concept of the Jodakshar. Let’s take the example of the letter K. There is a half K and half R and they come together to form a beautiful letter,” the artist explains. Expressing several emotions with the use of letters, the artist explores anger, sadness and much more — all through an understanding of how he himself treats the letters in such a way that they communicate the intention without using extra graphic or visual elements.
“I would like to take this forward in terms of changing the medium, maybe giving it a more three-dimensional form. I won’t say sculpture, but something like art object or installation-based, where I collaborate with a textile designer, or maybe an architect, or potters to come up with different kinds of forms of stories, but using devanagari as my main medium,” concludes Nikheel.
Entry free. April 26 to 28, 11 am. At BIC, Domlur.
Written by: Shambhavi Ranjan
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