Copyright © HT Digital Streams Limited All rights reserved. A large-scale work from the series, ‘We Don’t End At Our Edges’, cotton rag fiber pulp. Images: courtesy Gallery Threshold/ the artist Summary Artist Ravikumar Kashi continues his engagement with pulp painting in which paper becomes a metaphor for loss of language, heritage and time Waves of white caught the eye as soon as you entered Gallery Threshold in Delhi. Billowing sheets hang from the ceiling. As you got closer to the work from the series, We Don’t End At Our Edges, letters of the Kannada script, etched on the sheet of the newspaper, became apparent. The pores in the sheets cast shadows on the gallery walls and floor – thereby giving the etched words a new reflected form. Made with cotton rag fiber pulp, the paper became a metaphor for the body as a container of memory and history. In artist Ravikumar Kashi’s hands, paper becomes more than just a surface or a medium. It takes sculptural and tangible forms, and contains themes around the loss of language, heritage, of people and time. We Don’t End At Our Edges formed part of the recently completed solo, Shadows of Breath, in which paper “is a material that is both fragile and resilient, recording presence and absence… . The title referred to the fleeting, subtle marks, the shadows, left by the internal rhythms of life,” the catalogue. The works on display evoked stories, silences, conversations and friendships. It showed how paper has become central to the Bengaluru-based artist’s practice over the past decade. Over time, he challenged the fragility and passivity associated with paper through his sculptures and artist books. Here paper is not an inert vessel for text, but is the text itself. Kashi will show another large-scale installation, Holding Pattern, at the Bangalore International Center from January 16-25, 2026 as part of the BLR Kala Hubba. Almost 13 feet tall, the work will rotate on its axis. In a labor-intensive process, which took time to perfect, he creates different types of paper pulp in his studio by combining different plant and textile fibers. “The pulp has a sauce-like consistency. I then use a nozzle to write text on a plastic sheet, which takes on an intricate textured form when it dries. It took me a long time to get to the right consistency. But when I did, it opened up tremendous artistic possibilities for me,” says Kashi. The artist has also had a long-standing engagement with text. He has written several books, and lectures extensively on visual art and literary culture in both Kannada and English. “Both in my sculptures and artist books I use the image and text together. The use of text in my work comes naturally to me. When I perfected the process of pulp painting, I immediately thought of creating a series in which language becomes a metaphor for a membrane that can hold memory – the way it absorbs and expresses,” he adds. A version of this idea was shown in an immersive exhibition at the Museum of Art and Photography, Bengaluru, earlier this year. See full image ‘Labyrinth of Destinies: A Tribute to Krishna Reddy’ The labor involved in the process adds another layer of meaning to the work. At each step the idea evolves, reflecting the inner workings of the artist at that time. Kashi cites the example of the large-scale work in white, in which each scroll spans 32 feet. It took him 12 hours to complete half a scroll. “While I was working, different thoughts came to me. As soon as I expressed one strand, another one came to me. These waves of thoughts led to a parallel visual idea,” says the artist. For him, this way of working follows the Buddhist idea of ​​simply observing thoughts and not getting caught up in them. Kashi calls his practice “artisanal,” with a sense of touch, in which he grinds his own pulp and layers it. The thinking is not separate from the making. “There are no divisions. As you make a work, a new idea will arise. It will manifest itself in a new texture. This process makes the artist alive to the possibilities until the last moment,” he adds. Viewing the exhibition was akin to a journey through textures and meanings. You started with sculptures in stark white, and ended with a vibrant installation that reflects the cityscape of Bengaluru in different seasons. In one of the works, earthy red veins crossed the off-white surface. From afar they looked like the topography of the human heart. As he got closer, the installation took on the feel of a cityscape, with a rough map of Bengaluru superimposed on the surface, made from the pulp of Daphne fiber. The veins then looked like the streets and lanes of the city. “I also used text in Kannada from the poems of Gopal Krishna Adiga. The verses are imbued with hope to build a new country after independence. The work is like a site where ideas of membranes, optimism and connectivity – of blood, ideas and routes – come together,” elaborates Kashi. In the last work on display, Where the Words Bloom, tendrils of alphabets could be seen streaming from the ceiling. In this one, the language became a metaphor for flowering and growth. It referred to the spring season in the city, when the landscape comes alive with shades of yellow, violet and orange. “In the old bungalows, which still survive in the cantonment area, there is a walkway between the outer gate and the main door to the house. Often there is a shed on top, with flowers hanging from the roof. I wanted to bring all those layers into this series, which will take on newer forms and meanings in the coming time,” he adds. 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