17 October,2015 08:00 AM IST | | Benita Fernando
Delhi-based artist does a show-and-tell of his passion for calligraphy
Each artist at the Dastakari Haat Samiti's exhibition at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharashtra Vastu Sangralaya has a story to tell.
The exhibition, called Akshara: Crafting Indian Scripts, is unique for the way in which calligraphy has been blended with India's rich heritage of crafts.
One of the calligraphy mentors, Rajeev Kumar, was a Delhi-based mechanical engineer working in the oil sector, until he quit his job in 2000 to set-up a design studio and practise calligraphy.
Fiddling with pens and brushes right through his college days, Kumar stumbled upon a world of artists in calligraphy books.
The self-taught artist co-mentors with Qamar Dagar, another calligrapher, who hails from a family of musicians.
"European languages have the same scripts whereas India has such as wide variety of scripts. I want to take calligraphy to the level of mainstream gallery art," says Kumar.
Do watch out for his hand-painted scrolls with deconstructions of Indian fonts as well as other works by artisans at the exhibition.
