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| FOR THE MARKET: Three little pigs and the memory pillars
by Bastar artists |
The Murias
of Bastar, an area in Chhattisgarh roughly the size of Belgium, live secluded
in their wooded uplands, sprucing up their youth dormitories with suggestive
chip carvings. Their neighbours, the Maria Gonds, dance around with headgear
of bison horn and make huge wooden and stone memory pillars for their
dead ... the residue of an ancient monolithic culture. Now, at a show
in Mumbai, four artists from the region have used their wood-carving skills
to make some exciting improvisations to tradition.
Shantibai, 40, made a 5ft 3in self-portrait (unabashedly in the nude)
holding a mallet. Kabi Ram transformed pigs, an integral part of the Bastar
landscape, from a diet to a deity when he made three lifesize ones and
arranged them as the snorty guardians of a memory pillar temple. The pillars,
a rich orgy of figures, were made by veterans Ghasu Ram and Raj Kumar
in continuance with style that had been partly introduced by Mumbai sculptor
Navjot Altaf for her collaborative works with these artists. Now their
coming into their own. The exhibition, now showing at Sakshi Gallery,
is on till November 23.
-Anshul Avijit
 Lost
And Found
In December last, a painting by Hemendranath Mazumdar of his wife (below)
was stolen from the ancestral house of Kalyan Chowdhury in Bhanderhati,
Hooghly, only to resurface mysteriously at auctioneers Bowrings earlier
this month. Chowdhury immediately complained to the Delhi Police, who
swiftly had the Rs 20 lakh painting withdrawn from the auction. In this
connection, Prakash Kejriwal, the owner of Chitrakoot Gallery in Kolkata,
which supplied the work, has been arrested. Mazumdar's seductive art,
done during the first half of the last century and previously ignored
by collectors, appears to be on a high.
Design Diplomacy
 Somebody
asked me if we're competing with FTV," French Ambassador Bernard
de Montferrand said the other day. Er ... actually, we were wondering
too. Once fixated on the American Embassy, Delhi's fashion fraternity
has now made the French envoy's home a venue of choice. The Montferrands
have hosted three designers' shows in less than two months: Suneet Varma,
Ashish Soni and last week, Neelam Saxena. But French interest in Indian
style goes beyond that. Next March, says the ambassador, Delhi will witness
a French fashion week where "a top French couture house" will
participate along with select Indian designers.
As for Saxena, after unapologetically starting two hours late, the lady
ushered in a relentless explosion of sound, colour and embellishment on
the ramp. Perhaps in deference to the diplomatic venue, the audience maintained
a discreet silence.
-Anna M.M. Vetticad
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CURRENT
ISSUE NOV 26, 2001
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