Images of life and human bond
RANA SIDDIQUI
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Two women artists display a celebration of life through their works.
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CELEBRATING LIFE A sculpture by Dimpy Menon and (below) Frida Steinberger's rebirth of a child in porcelain
Two women artists, two different mediums, two countries, two venues but the same theme: celebration of life against all odds. These two women are multidisciplinary Israeli artist Frida Steinberger and sculptor Dimpy Menon from South India.
In her photo and porcelain works exhibition Manta Ray - The Withdrawal, just concluded at Paharpur Business Centre Art Gallery, Frida portrays the visible differences and celebrations of life between the upper class Israeli families and lower class Arab and Israeli families at the same place. Sculptor Dimpy Menon expresses the difficult life of women, which is yet not devoid of celebration in her bronze works, displayed at a recently concluded exhibition at the Apparao Gallery.
Frida's photographs taken at the Manta Ray beach in Israel depict a silent communication between two social classes. While in her porcelain works, she uses the egg carton as a symbol for a broken yet embryonic shelter for the newborn - the newborn she shows by small children made of porcelain placed between the gaps in the carton. Says this product of Bezahal Academy of Art, Jerusalem, Israel, "Standing on <243>this beach I used to wonder at the way people celebrate their lives despite the turmoil they have gone through in this country.
While the upper class enjoys it sitting inside the expensive restaurant on the beach, the middle and the lower class, who cannot afford to go to the restaurant, enjoy at the beach."
Through her malstructured porcelain babies, she not only raises a hope for a new life for them but also demands the right to education and a life of a minimum standard.
She has also come up with a few works of art as a result of her collaboration with potters from Khurja. In 2007, she along with few other artists, photographers, etc., will go to Khurja for a month of interactive workshops with them, for an exchange of art and craft.
Dancing images
For Menon, her bronze sculptures, most of them depicting women in dancing postures, are a symbol of her own strength. There is a lyrical quality in all of them, which she is able to impart because of her immense love for music and dance.
"I try to gauge my strength through my work. Making a mould for these works, working with the kiln, casting, hammering and restructuring heavy metal, picking up and placing them from one place to another, was and is still considered a man's work as it needs a lot of physical labour. But I do it on my own. I derive this strength from testing my own ability, say for instance, walking five miles in the morning, " says this sculptor trained at the Madras College of Art.
When Menon opted for sculpture in 1986, her principal discouraged her saying it was not a girl's medium, but she wouldn't budge.
Today, among women, Menon is the most celebrated sculptor, who has exhibited her works in many countries. But she does feel peoples' interest in <243>sculpture is still in the infant stages.
"We still don't have a special gallery for sculpture, while abroad I saw special galleries for different categories, from oriental works to only dead artists' works. Its high time the market realised we are better than many sculptors in the world," she asserts.
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