Priyanka speaks to Blur The Border :

Blur : What made you take a leap from architecture and dive into wall art, installations and sculptors? In what ways has it informed the creation of large-scale artworks at the House of Berserk?

Priyanka : The grueling training to be an architect has prepared me with an innate understanding of scale, space and volumes. Which in turn helps us to take on projects of various scales without any hesitation. Architectural studies also introduce you to multiple creative practices- lighting, furniture, visual arts, music, performing arts, films and many more. We believe all that one has seen, heard or experienced feeds into our work one way or another. Evolving from my architecture background, I have blossomed through the years by virtue of conscious choices and eccentric exploration.

Blur : You have often spoken about the ‘energy of colours’ and the emotions they evoke, has that influenced a signature style (eccentric and vivid colour palette) in your works? 

Priyanka : The majority of my work is the narrative going around identity and its fluxes with the distinctive artistic style being colors. For me, colour is ‘a vital element, like water or fire’, It is not just an emotion, but energy vital to my practice, a holistic way of healing.

Blur : You primarily identify yourself as a storyteller rather than an artist. What motivates/influences this distinction, and how does it shape the way you approach your work?

Priyanka : Storytelling is the act of sharing a story or narrative to convey ideas, beliefs, or experiences through words or actions. It's an interactive art form that involves a storyteller and a listener. Now artists are creators themselves. I on the other hand am merely a facilitator most of the time because I could be the listener and the client the storyteller and vice versa.

I believe that design is a question of love. With my art, I want to enrich people’s lives, strengthen communities, and enhance nature with lasting economic value. So the stories are also innate in nature. So more than simply working around the client's taste I prefer tapping into their collective memories and then translating it into a more tangible work. 

We start with understanding our clients better by sending them a quirky questionnaire. That assists us in getting an insight into their Making. What are they made of and their aspirations as to where they are headed. 

This in turn helps in brief building. So our whole process revolves around the art of storytelling.

Blur : Do you have a definitive process while creating? Are there any habits or rituals that help you get into a creative mindset?

Priyanka : I do have rituals. Both daily and quarterly. But they are more on the lines of unwinding than getting ready for action. I feel we undermine the power of quiet. Or spending time alone, nurturing one's own self. Of all the things in the world, I chose the most inaccessible one. Diving. That helps me navigate paradox, ambiguity, and complexity and gravitate towards a higher vantage point. Sometimes all you need is decluttering of thoughts and being under water offers me just that. I take a dive trip every four months, enough to sustain me for the next four when I am on land. 

And on a regular day, I prefer unwinding with a negroni, Maybe two. Check in on my friends. Read or take a small walk with my dog. It's neither small nor one. But well.

Blur : What role does the environment play in your work or fuel your creativity?

Priyanka : It is everything. I am an atheist but if there was to be a temple I believe in, it is this studio. I wanted to create a space that makes nomads like me feel at home just by looking at it. To set an example of how even rented spaces can be loved and how women living alone can pamper themselves by creating their own safe space dictated by their own rules. It’s about how bold and confident HOB is not just in terms of what it creates for others but how it lives and treats itself which is completely unhinged. 

Blur : If you were to collaborate with another artist, within or outside of your discipline, what is one collaboration you would love to do?

Priyanka : I am currently touring the country with the French Embassy and was in La Réunion to paint a wall. I worked alongside an artist from Guadalupe and it hit me then. There's so much talent on this planet it is beyond our comprehension. So not one, not ten. I want to paint this world red with every artist there is. Any life that I can touch alongside the other.

Blur : How do you see murals evolving in India in the future, both in terms of enhancing public spaces and private homes?

Priyanka : There's a notion that public art projects 

Need to fit in today’s social and cultural climate?

Well, that's the idea that I wish we move away from. Say for example Our work doesn’t. We are not trying to fit into any preconceived brackets. HoB is a selfish practice; we express what we feel at the time of the project that compliments the context and its viewers. Our work, however, contributes to the social and cultural fabric by the sheer nature of its existence as public-facing artworks. 

With respect to murals in residential spaces, to live by itself is a work of art. And what better than a home to be a reflection of the same? Though as a design *trend* we definitely are moving towards collectables even with respect to decor. We also are shifting towards contemporising and reviving craft which has a very exciting and promising future. So again, a collaborative approach which is laden with craft and art and diverse in materials is the way ahead. 

Blur : It has been 5 years since House of Berserk began and you already have about 400 to your credit and some of the most high-profile clients in your portfolio. How have you been able to keep up with that and what’s in the future for House of Berserk?

Priyanka : We are stepping into our seventh year on January 1st 2025 with some 500 works to our credit. There's no keeping up with it. There's so much hunger in me; it keeps me awake for all the right reasons. There is no ‘I have done it all’. I wake up thinking what's the next thing I would like to witness and challenge myself to? All of us have this finite time and infinite possibilities that I would like to experience before I hang my brush. 

The Future is in collaborations. Someone's already a master of the craft where my limitations begin. I want to hone this studio to be as liberal and as diverse a practice and be as unhinged as I am.