Litholekha
Subrat Behra is a master printer specialising in lithography. He set up his studio Litholekha in 2018, right after his participation in the Kochi Biennale (year?). His practice explores myths and how re-telling of narratives creates more narratives consisting of multiple prints in the form of panels leading to a scene.
After completing his bachelors in fine arts in Bhubaneswar, Subrat came to Baroda in 2008 to pursue masters in printmaking. It took him four years to qualify for the program at the Department of Graphics, Faculty of Fine Arts, Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. He intentionally chose printmaking for it’s complex technicalities and constant challenges which furthered his scope of learning. Surprisingly, even after becoming a master printmaker, he didn’t have enough support to be able to start his own practice. There was constant rejection from several host studios in Baroda because they didn’t think his work to be adequate. His primary focus still remains on the visual image and narrative of the story and he believes in changing his medium every now and then to experiment further.
One of the major problems faced is that of finding assistants as a majority of the students dismiss lithography as a method without a scope. One has to undergo sufficient trial and error before somewhat getting a hold of the medium. Even then, a 100 percent success is never guaranteed. Moreover, the stones are heavy and generously scaled so pinning and/ registration is always a problem without assistance. Nonetheless, Litholekha’s aim is to develop new techniques and methods to keep challenging the medium.