Abhay A. Gaekwad

Your works are about making comments on anti poaching. This has been the focus of your work for quite a while now. Why so?
I have worked on this issue since I graduated from college in 1999.Then my subject matter was restricted only to anti-poaching but it has now expanded to several issues along the same lines like encroachment and deforestation. What we perceive as industrial development and growth is...

Your works are about making comments on anti poaching. This has been the focus of your work for quite a while now. Why so?
I have worked on this issue since I graduated from college in 1999.Then my subject matter was restricted only to anti-poaching but it has now expanded to several issues along the same lines like encroachment and deforestation. What we perceive as industrial development and growth is actually human encroachment and exploitation of nature. When a city grows, it eats into forests and thereby into the habitats of animals, leaving hardly any choice for animals but to come into our territory. Eventually, our only means of defense against the unavoidable clash between species is to kill these animals. We have to learn to manage our resources without affecting our ecosystem. There is so much to be done and said about these problems. Everyday there is a new concern related to this.

Why has the absence of the human form been so prominent?
My works revolve around a scenario, which is totally manmade. The absence of the human form is intentional, though his presence can be felt through the images of manmade effects like buildings, machinery etc.

How has your work evolved over the years?
I cannot work in the same style for too long and this requires me to add on and change to my visual expressions. My visual language has evolved despite the paintings being based on the issues that distress me.

Apart from painting in acrylic, you have also worked in terracotta…
Though my favourite medium is definitely acrylic on paper and canvas, I chose terracotta, as it is a natural material. I enjoy making animal figures though working in three-dimensions is very different and I chose to adopt a more animated language while my paintings are visually realistic.

Text and collage are new elements in your recent body of works…
These are the first works in which I have used original text and collage. At this point in time, I feel that the visual alone is unable to convey my message as directly and intensely as I wanted it to, so I incorporated these two elements. Another experiment includes some paper works created with ballpoint pen scribbling. This is an attempt to show how every animal has to struggle to survive naturally simply because of man and his need to perpetually industrially revolutionize all facets of living be it communications by means expressways or economic upliftment by means of intensive agriculture, we are meddling with nature. Human presence is basically ruining and rupturing the ecosystem.

What would you count to be the most important influence on your work?
Nature is full of art. One just needs time to notice art in nature. Artists notice it and imitate it.

What can we expect to see you do in the future? Do you feel it necessary for your works to have a social message?
This passion for voicing out against the injustice towards animals and their habitats has become such an inherent part of me, that I see myself continuing with my crusade for the subject, though I may add elements like textile and continue with collage. Although I prefer my works to speak with their messages, often they act simply as studies, which later become stories in themselves.