Renegotiang Imagery : Collages of V. V. Ramani

Dr. Ashrafi s. Bhagat

The contemporary discourse on Indian art is a witness to artists actively engaging with technology and manipulating its versatility to speak in many voices in order to express their concepts. Despite easy access to technology as the virtual world, computer graphics, videos, audios for multimedia works, yet, there are artists who consciously have negotiated with traditional mediums to give form to their creativity. One artist within this contemporary situation who has made conscious efforts to work with the difficult medium of collage is the Chennai based V. V. Ramani, [Born 1956] who has dedicated himself to working with collages over the last two decades and established his artistic reputation with it. Though collage remains his artistic voice, there are no constraints of limiting himself to only one medium. He is talented, skilled, versatile and an intellectual who never fails to find an opportunity in engaging with other disciplines as designing costumes for dancers, sets, stage as well as crafts. Hence in his approach to various artistic disciplines he has not privileged one over the other as between arts and crafts, designs and fashions, techniques and medium freely interpolating and melding to suit his concepts and concerns. It is therefore not surprising that Ramani wears many hats as he is an artist, textile, costume and stage designer, writer and a singer.