Wednesday 29 April 2015

Why I love Folk Art III: Heidi Lange and her unique take on African and Viking art on Batik

                     Consider this. A lady with German origins with a Swedish heritage, who fell in love with the Masai tribe in Kenya, and linked the everyday life of the Masai tribes with the Laps in Lapland, from back home in Sweden, and began a unique tribal art form based on these two tribal folklore and traditions, on batik tie-dyed silk screens- That's the UNESCO awarded artist Heidi Lange for you!
                     It is one thing when such folk art comes from the indigenous people of such marginalized cultures, completely another when an outsider, inspired by the traditions, lifestyles, folklore and customs of such tribes, embarks on a mission to create her own artwork. Today, Lange has not only won several awards for her unique work, she has exhibited her prints and paintings in several countries and has also made her artwork available to the general masses as souvenirs and low-cost memorabilia.
                     My tryst with her work was in Gamla Stan, the old quarter of Stockholm, when I'd been there in 2013. In a touristy street, rather bylane, tucked between two souvenir stores, was a tiny shop with displays of her work. Amidst the loud tackiness of the other colorful souvenirs, the prints and paintings of Heidi Lange caught my undivided attention. Her frequent motifs are moose, set in various formats and designs, as well as Viking ships. At that time, I had no inkling of who she was, and also that she sold African based art. The batik printed silkscreens I bought were these:































The other works of hers can be accessed here:
http://www.heidilange.com/commercial.html

Images of Vikings in Lapland with lots of moose motifs:

































After I returned from Stockholm, I sat down to research her work, and the moment the Masai art showed up, I was hooked. There are beautiful renditions of just busts of women:






















And other works abound in pastoral life:


























Can African art be complete without it's flora, fauna and masks?







A true inspiration!

Tuesday 28 April 2015

Ulysses, by Alfred Lord Tennyson: nostalgia overlaid with respect

      Today, for no reason except maybe nostalgia for my school days, I recalled my English Lit classes conducted by our school principal, Mr O A Joseph. Eng Lit classes were always special for me, as there are two things that make life special- a great idea, and someone great who understands, shares and resonates with you on the same plane to discuss and expand on that idea. That was Lit classes for me- great literature and O A Joseph Sir.
      Even though there were several works that we were taught, ranging from Shakespeare ( we had The Merchant of Venice at that time in ICSE), stories by stalwarts like V.S.Naipaul, O'Henry, Guy de Maupassant, Roald Dahl, Katherine Mansfield, D H Lawrence....the list goes on, entire novels like Great Expectations, poems by all the great and well known poets, somehow, Ulysses by Alfred Lord Tennyson remains by ONE TRUE INSRIRATION and MEMORY of those long ago classes. I'm sadly not in touch with Joseph Sir any more, but I'd like to dedicate him this poem after all this while. 

Sir, if it hadn't been for you and the way you taught me this poem, my life might have turned a tad bit different from the one that I'm currently pursuing and the plans that I have for my future. The memories of those long gone days still evoke the best that life has offered me yet.Wherever you are, please know that I will never forget you, nor what you taught me. Thank you so much for being you. 




Ulysses 

by Alfred Lord Tennyson


It little profits that an idle king,
By this still hearth, among these barren crags,
Match'd with an aged wife, I mete and dole
Unequal laws unto a savage race,
That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.
I cannot rest from travel: I will drink
Life to the lees: All times I have enjoy'd
Greatly, have suffer'd greatly, both with those
That loved me, and alone, on shore, and when
Thro' scudding drifts the rainy Hyades
Vext the dim sea: I am become a name;
For always roaming with a hungry heart
Much have I seen and known; cities of men
And manners, climates, councils, governments,
Myself not least, but honour'd of them all;
And drunk delight of battle with my peers,
Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy.
I am a part of all that I have met;
Yet all experience is an arch wherethro'
Gleams that untravell'd world whose margin fades
For ever and forever when I move.
How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnish'd, not to shine in use!
As tho' to breathe were life! Life piled on life
Were all too little, and of one to me
Little remains: but every hour is saved
From that eternal silence, something more,
A bringer of new things; and vile it were
For some three suns to store and hoard myself,
And this gray spirit yearning in desire
To follow knowledge like a sinking star,
Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.

This is my son, mine own Telemachus,
To whom I leave the sceptre and the isle,—
Well-loved of me, discerning to fulfil
This labour, by slow prudence to make mild
A rugged people, and thro' soft degrees
Subdue them to the useful and the good.
Most blameless is he, centred in the sphere
Of common duties, decent not to fail
In offices of tenderness, and pay
Meet adoration to my household gods,
When I am gone. He works his work, I mine.

There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail:
There gloom the dark, broad seas. My mariners,
Souls that have toil'd, and wrought, and thought with me—
That ever with a frolic welcome took
The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed
Free hearts, free foreheads—you and I are old;
Old age hath yet his honour and his toil;
Death closes all: but something ere the end,
Some work of noble note, may yet be done,
Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.
The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks:
The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep
Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends,
'T is not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will

To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.





Monday 27 April 2015

Why I love folk art II: Tara Books and the art of making handbound books in traditional folk art

   Ok.....this one is a piece on something that really, I mean really swept me off my feet. A few days back, I was browsing through Flipboard, and reading an article on Indian tribal/folk/indigenous art. A link led me to discover an independent publishing house based in Chennai, called Tara Books, founded by a lady named Gita Wolf. Now, what she does has been something I myself have been wanting to do since a long time, given my absolute love and fascination for Indian Folk Art. Not only does Tara Books bring to light amazing art works in the form of illustrated books by marginalized, little known tribal artists representing the various tribal art forms in India, like Madhubani, Gond, Warli, Kalamkari etc, it also employs local workers to turn these illustrated stories into handbound books!! Now that, I say, is sheer brilliance. I am so so impressed!!
      
     It is amazing, rather so inspiring and heartening to see people giving a boost to this cottage industry that deals in indigenous art. And wait till you see the stunning works of these artists. Hailing from little villages, harboring an insularity that is the very source of their genius, and wielding brushes that produce intricate, detailed portraits and vignettes from our Hindu epics, oral stories and their bordered lives, these artists and their works are a joy to behold, as well as a testimony to the beauty and simplicity of these marginalized art forms.   

Have a look at this video to appreciate the art of making handbound books:
http://www.tarabooks.com/about/media-gallery/




Also, the sheer beauty and resonance of some of the art works in the illustrated books left me spellbound.


"Alone in the Forest" by Gond artist Bhajju Shyam.






The Night Life of Trees: Gond art by Bhajju Shyam







"Gobble you up": Mandana traditional art by Sunita







The London Jungle Book: Gond art by Bhajju Shyam






Drawing from the city: Gond art by Tejubehan


















Waterlife: Madhubani art by Rambharos Jha

























Hope is a Girl selling Fruit: Madhubani art by Amrita Das



















                     

                         A long, long time ago, my art teacher, late Mr Venkat, had introduced me to Madhubani art. His descriptions about these slowly disappearing art forms had created a special interest in my mind. Although quite interested to pursue this art form by actually going to the Madhuban region of India, also referred to as Mithilanchal or Mithila, and finds mention in the great Indian Epic Ramayana, I have yet to see this cherished dream come true. But as is with things, when you desire something, you do stumble across ways to achieve it. That opportunity came my way through a fellow- Phd mate, now my best friend, Ajit Prakash, who happens to be from Darbhanga, which falls in the Madhubani District in Bihar, India. He too expressed an interest in this art form, as distant relatives of his have been doing this since a long time. We have plans of creating a startup to employ these little known artists, who are mostly women, and give them a better platform to not just give them a steady and decent source of income, but also make this art form more popular and appreciated. At the moment, we have created an e-commerce website that is called " Chitrankan, The Indian Art Store" (www.chitrankan.in). But the idea is still in it's inception, and may take a while to be on the floor as we are too busy to take time off from our PhDs to pursue this full time. But I'm glad it's happening finally.