If you are crossing the St. Joseph’s circle at Wadala in Mumbai, you will come across this installation – right in the middle of the circle, quietly witnessing the growth of the 100 year old St Joseph’s School right round the corner. It is a mute spectator to the surrounding, unending buzz of traffic, the monorail chugging on overhead, and passers-by giving it a curious look!
The Mild Steel structure has 7 standing stencil-like panels in rainbow colors, depicting an open book, with pages fluttering in the air, taking flight and then turning into birds. The colors of the rainbow signifying hope and inclusion. “Education is Liberation” was the message that the school wanted to reiterate when they adopted the circle and commissioned the installation in 2019 to mark their centenary year.
While the installation was inaugurated before the lockdown, several rounds of landscaping were required to finally create the perfect setting for this very positive message! Thanks to the untiring efforts of the St. Joseph’s School Alumni Committee
“About Radhika – For me to describe her paintings would be a travesty since I am hardly an aesthete. However even to my common and barely functional eye, it is more than evident that Radhika is at state with a brush or pencil in her hand. She was born to this Art form. Fortunately for us mortals to savour her work.
Pankaj Agarwal, Alumni Committee Member
Now to the most recent interaction we had with Radhika.In 2016 our Alma Mater – St. Joseph’s High School, Wadala; completed its centenary. It was a prestigious event backed by a full-scaled celebration of epic proportions. During the course of the year, we were handed over the small roundabout opposite our school to beautify and manage. The students body and the school Principal decided to install a sculpture in the Garden patch in the middle of the roundabout.
Then began the quest for an artist who could execute this for us. Since yours truly was one of the committee members, I suggested Radhika’s name to be considered. Radhika was true to form from the word go. Right from the first conversation, she was completely cued in. The Principal had some ideas which were iconoclastic and Radhika was quick to suggest a departure from having a regular bust or some other more common installations.
The idea floating around was “Education Liberates the Mind”.Radhika suggested an idea of an open book with pages fluttering and becoming birds that are liberated, symbolically, as one keeps reading it and gaining knowledge. It was a winner. As usual, she was thinking on her feet.It could be a simple 3 dimensional bronze artefact. However, she suggested a continuum of 7 rectangles, each with progressive stages of page turning into a bird and flying off, erected one after the other. She not only explained this in sketch, but actually made a mock up using the most ingenious materials from her studio and demonstrated it for us at the School, until we were sold.
Many visits to the contractor in Thane, with a motley group of ageing men who called themselves students and their Principal – Rev. Fr. Godfrey D’Sa; more visits to the school to oversee the inspection and finally, many months of wait for the permission to install and inaugurate – all went in a whirr.
And finally Mumbai got a brand new landmark in an epochal moment, to immortalize.
The sheer passion and enthusiasm backed by absolute control on her mind, sets radhika apart as a human. Her child-iike innocence and reticent demeanour belies her talent and accomplishment as an artist. And finally, her professionalism and the ability to suffer all comers is what truly makes her a wonderful human who is gifted as well.
Thank you Radhika. My friend. We wish you all the success with your new website. More power to you. “