Commentary by Ron C. Moss

Haiga Showcase: Kala Ramesh

Kala Ramesh is well known for her high quality haiku, tanka, and related forms, and it’s a great pleasure to be able to present her haiga here for the first time.

In “cluttered mind,” Kala matches a thought-provoking senryu with shapes and colors that nearly jump off the page. In her artist’s statement, she notes that she’s experimenting with an iPad and graphic software to create three-dimensional effects, and the results are lovely. She positions the design elements to bring them all into balance.

With “liquid clouds,” we see another three-dimensional effect that adds an element of motion. I know from my own haiga practice that, while software offers many choices, artists still must use their own eye to find the right presentation. Here, Kala positions the beautifully written haiku just right, in the ample “white space” around the photograph.

In “wind,” the sinuous shapes and use of contrast work very well with the haiku, creating a nice association with the wind and the eagle’s flight. I particularly liked the unusual rendering of the moon, and the curves that were carried into the tree shapes. The understated font doesn’t overwhelm the visual elements.

The final haiga, “with the flow of ink,” is another photograph that has been rendered through software and beautifully presented. The one-line senryu on a dash of gold contrasts nicely with the towering trees, providing a freshness common in all of her haiga.

Kala explains in her own words:

Having been a student of fine arts since the age of six, I knew I had a sense of design and composition in me. However, until a few months back, I never had an opportunity or gave myself time to explore the world of haiga.

Being passionate about storytelling, I soon realised that there is a nested relationship between language and thought and language and images. Filmmakers use montage, which is defined as “the technique of selecting, editing, and piecing together separate sections of film to form a continuous whole.”

In the four haiga showcased here, the pictures were sourced from Canva to facilitate the technique of montage, with my limited understanding of this subject. I have tried to incorporate a three-dimensional effect, and maintain an equal balance between the art work and the haiku … a marriage of two elements that adds layers of interpretations, with each viewing.

It’s extremely satisfying to see the page take shape image by image, colour by colour. While I’m just a beginner, I do believe in aiming for the unreachable. As Robert Browning says, “Or what’s a heaven for?”

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About the Artist

Kala Ramesh is a renowned pioneer in the field of haikai literature in India. Her 2017 book Beyond the Horizon Beyond was shortlisted for the Rabindranath Tagore Literary Prize. Her book the forest i know: a gathering of tanka verses was published by HarperCollins in July 2021.