ON THE SIDELINES
KESHAV RAO’S NEWS BREED
Stacks of newspapers, sculptures made of the same and enlarged newsprint with charcoal sketches on them and a TV constantly running breaking news. The installation at the HLF was a head-turner. If not the art, at least this line gets anyone’s attention: “Do we also shit news?”
At first sight, anyone would imagine that this is a rant against the media. “It’s not that kind of anger,” Rao is quick to dismiss.
“I want to raise this question to the large fraction of population that only consumes news, but consciously does nothing about it other than getting a little bit angry at the rapes and at the scams.”
Each canvas has one particular topic — ranging from the Bhopal Gas tragedy to the way society treats its own activists.