Kerala - Kochi   

Tribal art comes alive

Photo: H. Vibhu

TRADITIONAL ART: An artefact on display at the workshop of folk and tribal artisans that began at the Hill Palace, Thripunithura on Sunday.

KOCHI: Pandiram Mandavi was busy drawing on the log of wood that would be carved and put up as a pillar post. “It would take about 20 days to transform this piece of wood into a piece of art”, he said. And the wood carvings generally depict our way of life, he added.

“How we hunt, what we do at home, our culture and general livelihood”, he said. Pandiram Mandavi is one of the participants leading a group of tribals from his small village in Bastar.

There is Nandalal Vishwakarma from yet another village in Bastar who is busy making art work in iron and Sundar Singh Besra and many in his group make bronze metal statutes that have a heritage and tradition dating back thousands of years. Then there is a Kumhar community making beautiful terracotta figures.

All these artistes from in and around Bastar, spread over about 50-55 kms, in Chattisgarh are participants at the Workshop of Folk and Tribal Artisans called Aala, organised by the State Lalithakala Akademi, South Zone Cultural Centre. They are here to showcase how they have kept their traditional art alive in spite of changing times.

The metal work artistes have also brought with them some artwork that they had made back home. There are also a group of artisans from Mannar in Alappuzha, famous for the metal ware utensils like kindi, uruli, etc, participating in the workshop here.

The artistes will be here making and exhibiting their work at the Hill Palace premises in Thripunithura from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. for 20 days. The workshop that started on Saturday had a formal inauguration on Sunday.

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