“The disappearance of mud-house from Santal life not only ends the mud-house alone but also their religious and cultural life that are connected to it. And also the centuries-old traditional knowledge and art of building low-cost-no-cost mud-houses and the related skills and crafts, like wall paintings die out.” – Boro Baski in “Is ‘brick house’ the only sign of development?” (translated from an article in Bengali Anandabazar Patrika, 21 July 2019)
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=29829
Meena women of Rajasthan draw images of nature and nurture—baby animals and birds with their mothers—on the walls of their houses, during harvest season. Photo: Madan Meena
Feminine strokes A photo exhibition by Tara Books showcases the journey of artworks by women, from households to galleries, ‘bazaars’ and books
The art that women make every day, as part of their lives, is difficult to define. Chennai-based indie feminist publisher Tara Books aims to showcase just this in a photography exhibition, Floor to Book: Women’s Everyday Art Traditions, starting on Saturday, International Women’s Day, in Chennai. “The women who make such art seldom see it as art. Neither do those who write about art imagine that household spaces are congenial to the making of ‘art’ as we understand it in the modern sense,” says V. Geetha, editorial director of Tara Books. For over a decade, the organization has been exploring the trajectory of indigenous art forms and their women practitioners from rural areas and tribal communities, bringing such work to the forefront through illustrations in its books.
This exhibition’s three sections—Everyday Art; Transitions; and The Book—will map the journey of these folk art forms. It will feature images of women making kolam outside homes in villages, towns and cities every day in Tamil Nadu; aripana from Bihar, done by Brahmin and Kayastha women during marriage and religious ceremonies; Bihar’s khobar wall art, done exclusively inside the bridal chamber; digna, drawn inside and outside homes in Madhya Pradesh’s Adivasi Gond region to mark the harvest season and other festivities; and mandna from Rajasthan, done by Meena women during the harvest season, before Diwali and Teej; Warli women in Maharashtra make warli art on walls during harvest season and weddings.
Most folk and tribal art is acknowledged to have emerged from such everyday art, says the exhibition brochure. Women, the custodians and torch-bearers of this tradition, beautify their homes—thresholds, floors, walls, alcoves, prayer spaces—as part of housework, which involves physical labour and commitment. It is one of the many things they do as a daily routine.
“We want to make a case for seeing women’s creative labour within the household as holding out possibilities for those women who wish to transcend their given roles, as mothers, wives, and for whom the making of art can hold out a moment of epiphany, happiness and self-fulfilment,” says Geetha, who has curated the exhibition along with her colleague and author Gita Wolf. While gods are invoked in aripana imagery, dignas stick to geometric and abstract designs, and kolams to dots and lines; most other imagery and motifs are part of the collective repertoire that women access by watching and learning from other women. Warli and khobar imagery has to do with fertility; Meena women draw images of nurture, baby animals and birds with their mothers. […]
[Bold typeface added above for emphasis] Do! is a set of action pictures, rendered in the Warli style of tribal art. It introduces basic verbs to the young reader through a series of brilliantly drawn pictograms, which illustrate the verb and tell a story. Source: SHOP | Tara Books Address : https://www.tarabooks.com/books/?product_search=do%21 Date Visited: Sun Nov 23 2014 12:04:21 GMT+0100 (CET)
Tara Books is an independent publisher of picture books for adults and children based in Chennai, South India. Founded in 1994, we remain a collective of dedicated writers, designers and artists who strive for a union of fine form with rich content. We continue to work with a growing tribe of adventurous people from around the world. Fiercely independent, we publish a select list that straddles diverse genres, offering our readers unusual and rare voices in art and literature.
Source: About the Tara Books team | Tara Books Address : http://www.tarabooks.com/about/ Date Visited: Sun Nov 23 2014 12:04:21 GMT+0100 (CET)
The Uttar Pradesh government has recently embarked upon a scheme to take the unique culture of its ethnic Tharu tribe across the world. The intention is to put Tharu villages on the tourism map, and to create jobs and bring economic independence to the tribal population. […] The community belongs to the Terai lowlands, amid … Read more
Rites of Passage | Read the full article with illustrations here >> In general, women have a strong connection with the idea of a “vital cycle” not only as life givers, care-takers of children and the home; and their own monthly menstrual cycles. Some women, especially those from the tattoo community within the Gond tribe have a strong … Read more
Watch a series of short videos by Venkatesh Lakshmanan Photo essay by Venkatesh Lakshmanan (PDF, 900 KB): The Halakki people of Uttara Kannada district >>
I cannot give you my forest is a documentary directed and produced by filmmakers- Nandan Saxena and Kavita Bahl. It has received the National Film Award for Best Environment Film in 2014. Filmed in the forests of Odisha, ‘I cannot give you my forest’ is a window into the lives of the Kondh ‘adivasis’. The … Read more
