Pincodes: Celebrating art’s unusual medium of postcards
The Hindu
How Pincodes celebrates art on postcards
“I was looking at modern modes of communication and wondering how though they often cost next to nothing, the consequences are many — junk mail, fake mail, an overload of text and images both still and moving,” says artist Giridhar Khasnis.
Coming from a generation that grew up in the 1970s and 80s, he reminisced on how the post card served the most basic purpose of communication. “Three specific personal instances came to mind. One, my first job interview call was on a postcard. Two, I was informed of my first acceptance for publication via postcard.”
Giridhar shares how the third was slightly more interesting. “When I went on my first Himalayan trek in the early ‘80s, it was to be a 15-day affair. On the day of departure, my father handed me a set of postcards with our home address asking me to drop a line every few days from wherever I was.”
When he returned, he found a few postcards reached after he did, but they were all souvenirs of his trip. “I felt youngsters today were missing out on the kind of fun we enjoyed and with this in mind, I began to put together this exhibition.”
Giridhar says he wanted to make this a small experimental show, giving unknown artists a platform to display their talent, and he partnered with Pradeep Kumar, faculty for MFA at Bangalore University, who handpicked students who had recently passed out.
Apart from the students and works by Giridhar and Pradeep, postcards by artists Rudragaud Indi, Vaman Pai, a master framer from Udupi and HS Venugopal, an art teacher known for his depiction of tree trunks, will also be on display this weekend.
“We were looking at a mix of young and old, upcoming and established artists, all of whom would find it challenging to create on a 3”x4” space,” says Giridhar. While some have miniaturised their styles to fit a postcard, others have literally stepped out of their comfort zones to create anew.