Paper beyond its limiting edges

In the contemporary digital age, the use of paper has been overlooked due to our screen-driven lives. Paper is usually perceived as a flat and passive surface.

At artist Ravikumar Kashi’s new exhibition, ‘We Don’t End At Our Edges’, paper is brought to life and transformed into tactile and sculptural pieces. The Bengaluru-based artist pushes the limits of paper beyond its ordinary boundaries, leaving viewers exploring the grey areas between form and text.

Kashi’s practice of pulp painting is a unique technique used to foreground the materiality of the paper. Different from regular paper-making, he uses recyclable materials such as Daphne fibre, cotton rag, hanji, and onion skin. The pulp of these fibres is passed through a nozzle onto a plastic base. Using this method, Kashi creates pieces stretching anything between 13 and 22 feet, which is very unlike traditional painting with its limited boundaries. His work focuses on the fragility and toughness of the material used.

Porosity is a strong metaphor in Kashi’s work. His ideas revolve around skin, language, and overall experience. “Our skin, although it is the end of the periphery, is very porous. We can exchange and absorb physically, emotionally, and intellectually,” says Kashi. This concept is used in his paper, which breathes, absorbs moisture, and shifts with time. Although the pieces look similar to nests, waterfalls, or cell membranes, they are designed to leave viewers with an open-ended experience, avoiding fixed interpretations.

In fact, Kashi resists the concept of meaning. The Kannada words and phrases embedded are used as a structure. Instead of paper traditionally carrying text, here, the paper itself becomes text. Each piece reflects the fragility of linguistics and culture. “Once you lose a language, you also lose entire memories of the culture associated with it and its people,” he reflects. The pieces resonate with Walter Benjamin’s concept of translation as a form of survival, where there is no fixed meaning but continued transformation.

The exhibition is a study of ephemerality. The meaning of each design shifts with context, lighting, and shadows. His studio, also called a ‘lab’, is where his experiments and discoveries unfold. Kashi follows a path with no final destination. He says, “I’m working with a compass, where I follow the direction with my gut feelings. A lot of surprises came my way. If I know where I’m going, there is no fun.”

‘We Don’t End At Our Edges’ is running at the Museum of Art and Photography (MAP), Bengaluru, till June 15.