Rm. Palaniappan (b. 1957) works in mixed media prints embellishing his works with such things as rubber stamps, wax seals, collage materials and embossing. Palaniappan is interested in aeronautics and systems of notation which signify the specifics of time, place and sequence. The imagery usually appears to have textural and landscape elements. In an interview, Palaniappan said, “Man has always wanted to fly as flight was a kind of release from space and time… Numbers interest me because they are both finite and infinite.”

The juxtaposition of the static and the mobile, words and images, freedom and limitations are not new to Indian art. But the unique way of Palaniappan’s presentation is indeed novel. His works can be interpreted to be Western connotations from an Indian perspective.