An exhibition of artfully decorated or painted postcards is underway at the Museum Road Post Office in Bengaluru. Six of the city’s artists have showcased as many as 85 postcards they have worked on.
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Bengaluru-based artist Giridhar Khasnis who curated the show says it came together serendipitously. The Chief Postmaster General S Rajendra Kumar who had visited the first edition of Pincodes: An Exhibition of Painted Postcards in early September thought a similar one to mark Postal Week occasion would be fitting.
Giridhar Khasnis and some of the postcards on display at the second edition of Pincodes | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Giridhar asked fellow artists Chitra Nandan, Rudragaud Indi, HS Venugopala, Vaman Pai and DM Pradeep Kumar, to be a part of this show. “The artists have worked on various themes creatively, considering its colour and more importantly, the minimal space a postcard offers,” says Giridhar.
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Among the many works on display, one can also see innovative pop-ups and collages crafted using the rather austere postcard as a medium.
“I hope an exhibition on painted postcards could re-ignite the romance of letter writing as well as spark an interest in the youth, especially among today’s school children, who are quite unaware of its purpose,” says the artist, adding, “The postcard is obviously a means of communication, but I hope with this event people realise it can relay a message via words and images.”
One of the postcards by Giridhar Khasnis on display at the second edition of Pincodes | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
In a happy coincidence, some of the first visitors to the exhibition included the students of Rashtriya Military School.
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Aiming to inspire visitors who drop in, two postboxes have been set up at the venue — one to send an actual postcard, the other to submit their own work of art created on a postcard.
Giridhar says he is looking forward to uncovering what the second postbox yields at the end of the exhibition as he is considering the best of these for the next edition of a painted postcard display. “I can only hope it motivates people to tap into their artistic side,” he says.
As is the norm in museums, none of the postcards on display are for sale. The show which began on October 1, observed as World Postcard Day, will conclude on October 16 at the end of National Postal Week. Sandesh Museum (popularly known as Postal Museum) is situated within the premises of the Museum Road Post Office.
Pincodes: An Exhibition of Painted Postcards is on at on Museum Road Post Office from 10-4pm everyday, including Sunday.
Some of the postcards on display at the second edition of Pincodes | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement