Friends Reunite for an exhibition

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What happens when a bunch of friends with a creative mindset get together? Certainly something more creative! The same happened when a bunch of four friends — three illustrators and one photographer got together one day.

Nalin Agarwal, who confesses to have taken his hobby of photography a bit too seriously, says that when he recently met three of his old friends Samia Singh, Rishabh Arora and Ashim Raj who are illustrators, while chatting with them realised that they all have some interesting works that have not been shared.
“Over the few days we decided to display the works for the people to see. And hence came the idea of the exhibition — ‘A Return To Circles’,” says Nalin, talking about the one-day exhibition at The Attic where the works of these four friends would be displayed amid good music.
Nalin, who studied about clean energy at the Imperial College, London and presently builds solar and wind farms, says that all the works speak a lot about the personality of the person behind it.
“Like, Samia, who is working as an art director with Tehelka, is involved in a lot of issue-based stuff and hence her illustrations reflect that. Her version of being a superhero would be the ability to play any musical instrument her heart desires,” he says.
Describing one of her works, Vulture, Samia says, “Many times a line from a song rings true. I pick lines that stick in my head and illustrate an imagined moment. Here, the vulture is a serious creature with true but blue thoughts.”
Aashim, who designs book covers at Penguin, tells stories that are “long, short, big, bad, sad and never-ending”. “Most of his illustrations are to do with text,” says Nalin.
Rishabh, a graphic designer at Tehelka, is driven by a need to find order and make sense of things. “He hopes to grasp the innocent, childish beauty of seeing and perceiving something for the first time,” says Nalin.
Nature and habitat has inspired Nalin’s works that have been taken while visiting different places. Nalin says he writes, breathes, imagines being among trees, photographs and at the same time also plays the role of a living room guitarist.
Talking about one of his works, Pink that was taken during an English class at a school in Pokharan in the Thar, Nalin says. “This was a time when I was doing some voluntary work, teaching basic communications-level English to children in this region. The land may have been parched, but again, the people make the land and the land in the end was magical.”
And while the present exhibition would be just a day’s affair, the fun won’t end here. The four friends would take it forward by displaying the works all around the capital. “It would be like a travelling exhibition. Next, we are planning to display the pictures at a gallery in Panchsheel and after that in Hauz Khas Village,” says Nalin.