Inspiration Flight of Nostalgia.
Inspiration
Rajnish Hedao, who has been known for his exceptional work as a production designer in Bollywood, was trained as an Architect. His passion for bringing beauty to forms and structures and creating fascinating and authentic worlds for each of his films, has been noteworthy and widely admired. Let it be, films like Guzaarish, Chandu Champion, 3 Idiots, Rockstar or 83 – each is memorable for the setting it stood on, left lasting memories in the minds and hearts of the audience.
Rajnish Hedao’s production design draws the hearts of the critics and general population, his two Filmfare awards for Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, and The Forgotten Army, are testaments to that.
But long before the days of architecture and production design, when Rajnish was a young boy, he was stirred by the incomparable brilliance of nature, especially when it came to birds. His father, who was a photographer and specialized in nature photography, as well as sketching, planted seeds in him for the love of birdwatching, along with, appreciation for the untamed wild.
Rajnish, himself used to photograph birds, floras and fauna in his younger days and some of these works were printed in nature magazines in the 1980s. With time and life’s demands his focus shifted to set designs and innovating realms for each of his film projects.
But perhaps the love for nature never left him, nor the admiration for the simplicity in everyday objects – it could a large brass teakettle, boiling tea at a dhaba in Kashmir, or an old steam boiler tucked away in scrap metal shops in the alleys of Delhi. Rajnish saw beyond these matters and his vision sharpened to create a newer future.
Paintings – Flora, Fauna, Feathers
At Hedao, our inspiration behind the paintings spurs from transient and fragile splendours of nature. Rajnish’s love for birdwatching, forests, rivers and natural environments come alive through paint brushes - tender subjects drawn in softer colour against the hardness of metal and wood.
The old form of lithographic printing is also a stimulus for Hedao’s art installations. Just as the vintage objects like samovars and stone pillars from South Indian temples are present in our inventions, similarly the vanishing styles of lithography is brought back through our aesthetics of painted art.
Blue herons come spread out their wings, while lotus leaves drop the last bit of dew before closing its petals forever on the night’s deep-blue waters. The elements of the unreachable and evanescence appear on the surfaces of each Hedao piece – to live forever. These statements can capture the busiest of eyes and take us back to the solitude of wildlife – in stillness and movement they bloom, they fly.
The Birth of Hedao Art Installations
Rajnish cannot pinpoint the exact moment when the idea for these one-of-a-kind art installations came to him, what he remembers however, are the sketches at the back of his notebooks.
“The first pages of a notebook are for all known structures, note-taking, they are for following rules, jotting down instructions, and the last pages are where we go to sketch out our dreams. We draw these personal new visions, at times a bit absentmindedly and at times with a definite purpose. Those last pages remain as one’s own property, giving birth to unseen dreams. They bring forth intimate inner visions while breaking set rules and boundaries.”
It was on such last pages of notebooks, where Rajnish had doodled his visions for Hedao – the future in a bond as traditional modernity. He had been making those sketches for a good while, but had no free time to look at them properly, to manifest them into matter and create this new style of art. It was in the past three years, that Rajnish started to bring life to these art installations. He created them one at a time, only to discover how such authentic pieces can claim spotlights in the world of contemporary art.