FINE ART: Suzy Bell
WHETHER for his trippy screen savers or portraits of peace, Bangalore artist Venkataraman Balu has been dubbed the master of the collage medium. He’s not simply absorbed in creating beautiful art, but in focusing on a global mission for peace through art. ”Art is a wonderful way to communicate the essence of peace,” says the artist.
He began his imaginative artistic peace mission in 1982 and has showcased work from his World Peace through Collage Art exhibition in New York, Belgium, London, Paris, Berlin and now in South Africa. The exhibition includes portraits of spiritual leaders, Mahatma Gandhi, Sai Baba and Hindu deities like Ganesh, because Balu believes art is the way to the divine.
Balu collects scraps of wastepaper, and with scissors and glue he creates abstract impressions of peace and sometimes singular images of inspiring pacifists. ”People think of collage as being made up of bits and pieces but in my collages I use bits and pieces to make a total, holistic composition. And my medium is the best and most aesthetic way of recycling paper.”
Venkataraman Balu will give a slide presentation at the Hindu Seva Samaj Centre in Cape Town on Sunday April 6