Interestingly most of the friends and acquaintances I have made in South City 1, were on account of what is mistakenly called ‘waste’. Anu Prakash is no exception and our first meeting was not over a cup of tea but rather over a pile of potential compost. During that first meeting Anu told me about her interest in Mosaic art.
Anu says, “My initial exposure to the wonderful world of mosaics was almost a decade ago while visiting the Hagia Sophia at Istanbul. It is decorated with beautiful and ancient mosaic works of Byzantine Art from the 6th century. My journey into creating mosaics started after the recent passing of my parents. It was a tough phase and learning a new art form was a meditative process that helped me cope with grief./
I enjoy recycling discarded items to create design. My first mosaic is what I call ‘Tree of Life’, where I used a worn-out Ikea table as a base. Presently, I am making a piece called ‘Quenching thirst’ for my garden, as a homage to the parrots, bulbuls and sparrows who stop by to take a sip of water. I am using broken ceramic cups, coasters and an old ceramic tile. Using broken crockery in mosaics is mockingly called Picassiette which is a French phrase that means “stolen plate”./ This term describes the work of a Frenchman who decorated his whole house with broken pieces of glass, porcelain and crockery.”
Creating mosaics out of broken crockery and tiles etc, brings forth a diametrically opposite facet of Anu Prakash who works as a Corporate Lawyer specialising in intellectual property protection and internal investigations.
