Emoting with art

To walk into the studio of Rafza Nehaul is to walk into a bazaar in the bylanes of India lively, vibrant. The colours and pungent aroma of the spices can get any olfactory to break into a party on the move ... yet her works stand frozen, capturing those elements.

Nehaul’s work and media, in some essence, are a confluence of the world’s largest democracy. “I was awed with India when I went there,” Nehaul, a former science, biology and mathematics teacher, said.

This visit commenced a love affair with the country’s colours, people and life, and became a series of India-centric pieces the maharaja (king) in his opulence, and the ‘big fat Indian wedding’ with the brides in their glittering finery taking the centrestage. Her travels to India were, in essence, the heady mix of spices, ground on stone to release their essential oils and then mixed to tantalise the tastebuds.

“There are so many colours to inspire, and the spirit of the people is awe-inspiring,” Nehaul related. “Wherever we went, we were welcomed with warmth.” The self-taught people- and nature-inspired artist, uses organic media to express her creativity.

“I use natural fibres, crates, construction leftovers and anything that people might think is garbage.” Barks of royal palm lie around her work space a material she extensively uses, adding a third dimension to her works.

“The texture and flexibility (of the royal palm) gives layers to the work that I am creating. I see texture and patterns in organic matter,” Nehaul informed. She mixes recycled and organic materials splashed with some usual and other improvised colours in one of her works, Nehaul used left over nail paint.

“This is where my science comes to play,” she chuckles, as she turns chemical compositions into works of art. “Any of the material can be used as my canvas. I don’t have a set format or pattern in which I build my pieces, they just happen and evolve,” she added.

With her living-room doors opening to the beach, there is no dearth of inspiration which comes from the hues Mother Nature disseminates at every moment. “I can’t imagine myself being anywhere else; this is bliss and paradise,” Nehaul said.

nature lover
Born in Guyana, Nehaul went to the United Kingdom where she was taught integrated science, biology and mathematics and then moved to Barbados 35 years ago. However, “Expressing my feelings through art happened very recently,” she said.

A nature lover, Nehaul says, she recognises its fragility, so she uses naturally preserved material for her art, which exudes her emotions and issues that are close to her heart. A bejewelled cricket bat sits enclosed in a glass case glorifying cricket ... aah lovely cricket.

“This (the bat) I created during the 2007 Cricket World Cup,” she says, but added in the same breath that she’s not a avid cricket lover. “It is the people in the stands, the character, colour and excitement in the stadium that is awe-inspiring.”

Her works, a testament to the game, which is the Indian sub-continent’s official ‘religion’, have the sequins, stones inlays and colours splashed all around, like the crowds in their finery, cheering and crying themselves hoarse as the ball is being hammered all over the place.

For Nehaul, art is a medium of highlighting social issues. She reads to kindergarten children and is also encouraging schools in Barbados to use recyclable material to create art and crafts.

“Not only does this inculcate their (school children) creative acumen, it also helps them appreciate their environment,” she says. This trait is also reminiscent of India where banana leaves are used to serve meals instead of plates, the chai (tea, in Hindi) is slurped in earthen cups, and old newspapers made into paper bags.

Nehaul is transforming her dreams into coloured expressions with predominantly Indian flavours, but an international footprint. “Sista Sista,” she informed of one of her earlier works, “is a manifestation of how I felt about crime against women in the world over. I needed to release the pain I felt for these women.”

Her expressions, like every form of art on the earth, don’t come across as three-dimensional adornments, but radiate centuries-old sayings from Upanishad, an ancient Indian scripture: “From falsehood lead me to truth; From darkness of ignorance lead me to light of knowledge; From death lead me to immortality.”