Artist Statement
The work I create focuses on my perception of the natural world and its fragility in relation to human existence. Much of what I make––one-of-a kind books, letterpress-printed artist books, cast paper sculptures, cut-paper works and animation––brings to mind the intentional growth, pattern, and arrangement one might find in nature.
Book history, its production and the art of the book have played a pivotal role in my professional life. My bookwork largely draws from natural history and ecology, and looks at both human engagement with the environment and current ecological concerns.
The process behind each project forms a large part of my work, and is evident in the finished pieces. Just as nature takes its time to evolve, slowly and thoughtfully, I make, at a slow and deliberate pace, work that evokes that very meaning.
Bio
Radha Pandey is a papermaker and letterpress printer. She earned her MFA in Book Arts from the University of Iowa Center for the Book where she was a recipient of the Iowa Arts Fellowship. She has learned European, Eastern and Indo-Islamic Papermaking techniques with Timothy Barrett and teaches book arts classes in India, Europe and the United States.
Her graduate thesis work- a hand-printed book of botanical anatomies titled Anatomia Botanica won the MICA Book Award at the Pyramid Atlantic Book Fair in 2014, and received an Honorable Mention at the 15th Carl Hertzog Award for Excellence in Book Design.
Her book Deep Time won the Joshua Heller Memorial Award at the Pyramid Atlantic Book Fair in 2018.
Her artists books are held in over 80 public and private collections internationally, including the Library of Congress and Yale University.
Currently, Radha is working on an artist book inspired by Mughal floral portraiture from the 17th century, and how it was impacted by colonialisation of plants. All the paper for the edition will be hand made in the traditional Indo-Islamic style.
To learn about the studio, click here.
Click here to download a .pdf version of my CV
Click here to download a digital prospectus