SECOND LIFE
Threads of colour
S.M. AAMIR
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Designer Rahul Jain has another side to his persona. He’s also an artist, though his style is rather unusual…
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The thread is my brush, canvas and paints all rolled into one
“Wearable art”: Rahul Jain.
Think of Rahul Jain and you think of all those wonderful clothes he designs for the rich and famous ranging from Naomi Campbell to Nicole Kidman. But there is more to Rahul Jain than just his fashion. Unknown to most, Rahul is a serious painter too.
What’s more his style is not the conventional oil on canvas or landscapes … rather his works of art are created using the simple thread.
Sitting at his utilitarian work place in New Delhi, Rahul Jain elaborates. “The thread is my brush, canvas and paints all rolled into one. I use different types of thread: linen, silk or cotton, at times steel, silver or even gold wires.”
No deadlines
Rahul believes his hobby helps him professionally too. For instance he calls his thread paintings “wearable art” and reveals that he has just created a dress using steel wires for Deepika Jindal of the Jindal Group of Industries, which she will wear at the steel conference next month in Sweden. “I paint at leisure without any specific deadline. I prefer to talk about it only with a few select friends who understand and enjoy art. I make images with threads and at times do some abstracts too. I particularly concentrate on shapes and figures.”
Though Rahul might only be a part-time painter, his works have a wider reach and at times get him good money too. The CEO of One Step, the Australian store, bought one painting, which is now displayed in the administrative lobby of the store. Among his other admirers is the Belgium ambassador to India who is known to be a serious art collector. Apart from these his paintings are also available in Egypt and the prestigious Sir Koka Art Gallery in New York.
How it works
Rahul reveals how his art works. “ I put pieces of thread of different colours and hammer it till it becomes thin like a cloth. Then all the pieces are joined by one single thread, which is the toughest job, for creating figures we have to outline them.” His paintings comes in different sizes though the smallest is around 3x4 feet. The price starts at Rs. 50,000 and can go up to Rs.10,00,000. Though as an artist he loves all his creations, Rahul takes particular pride in his scroll painting, a 22m long work. It opens like a scroll and depicts the story of a girl who goes through life from her early year to old age. Dancer Sonal Mansingh created a dance drama based on the painting. Incidentally the painting is will be auctioned in New York in October this year.
A column that looks at little-known facets of well known personalities.
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