When the city inspired them

Their association with art has taken them across the world, but it was for the first time that artist couple Iranna G.R. and Pooja Iranna were in the city, as part of the recently-concluded Krishnakriti Festival of Art and Culture.

“We have never had any shows in Hyderabad, and this time we were participating together with slide presentations, reflecting briefly on each of our two decade-old experience in art,” says Pooja, who works mostly with architectural imageries and changing spaces in cities and has showcased her work in New York, The Hague, Zurich and Dubai.

The graduate from Delhi’s College of Art says that the changing landscape of Hyderabad has greatly inspired her: “Hyderabad is the second largest city after Delhi to have monuments almost seamlessly co-exist with the ever changing architecture of the city.”

Unlike Pooja, whose work is devoid of human figures, Iranna G.R’s work is an extension of his expression of the human self.

The artist, who has exhibited in cities like New Delhi, Mumbai, Munich, London and Singapore, is gearing for his next show in New York on February 12 and will attempt to bring out the violence in society, juxtaposing it with religion and nature. “The prevailing violence works subconsciously in my psyche as an artist. I might say that killing an animal for human consumption is wrong. You might feel otherwise. And that is how violence continues to exist,” he says.