Balaji Ponna

How have your work and your creative process evolved since your years in college, in terms of both influences and output?

I come from a background of popular painting. I used to help my father who was a sign painter in Bhimavaram, Andhra Pradesh. When I entered the fine arts college I found the curriculum was quite different from that of what is practiced in the popular paintings. But in due course I...

How have your work and your creative process evolved since your years in college, in terms of both influences and output?

I come from a background of popular painting. I used to help my father who was a sign painter in Bhimavaram, Andhra Pradesh. When I entered the fine arts college I found the curriculum was quite different from that of what is practiced in the popular paintings. But in due course I tried to understand the different possibilities that both the popular paintings and the high art practices offered to me. Since then I have been using various linguistic devices from the popular paintings and try to see the various dynamics happening within the painting. Here the pop and Dada art also helped me in seeing popular paintings in a different way.

What prompted you to switch from graphics or printmaking, which you studied, to painting and other media?

There is no definite reason for the shift. As everyone knows the appreciation of the graphic medium is negligible and it is definitely not being promoted as an artistic medium for some time now for various reasons. But I think for me, the possibilities of the medium come first. So whether it’s a painting or graphics or sculpture or installation, if the medium offers the communicative possibilities I am looking at, I would definitely choose that.

Can you speak a little about the ways in which you want to engage your viewers through your work? What are some of the messages you want to send them through your humourous combinations of image and text?

Actually my works are in that way very simple and direct. I generally use images and texts which are part of the peoples collective thought so that they could easily recognize and identify with what I am saying. For quite some time I have been engaging with the ideas of nation, patriotism etc. I still find these concepts have validity in our cultural context. Title / Text offer a very interesting possibility of understanding a work. Since in the popular images even the text is seen as part of the visuality it always fascinated. I use texts to offer a critical turn or diversion in my work’s viewing. Sometimes the texts are about the images but sometimes the texts may offer different and contradictory meanings thereby inviting the viewers to think beyond what is generally understood. I think humor is the best way to criticize some issues. When you tell things in a humorous way it reaches the target with a force which is stronger than just criticizing overtly. You are saying things and meaning other things. It always keeps you guessing and makes the work open.

Can you tell us a little about the directions in which your creative practice is currently heading? What are some of the projects you are currently working on?

At present I am trying to extend my practice into a more plastic dimensional format. Something like sculptural works but something that still maintains the qualities of the painting. I am also working on different media.