Modulating the 'Demotic' & 'Domestic'

A Folk & Tribal Art Workshop 

Folk & Tribal art is produced from an indigenous culture, which is characterized by a naive style. Irrespective of modernity, industrialization or outside 'influences', the nature of folk and tribal art is specific to its particular culture. So, the varied geographical background, temporal prevalence and stylistic diversity are the specialties of the folk and tribal art which may also considered as rural, self-taught, local or pure art.

These arts as a 'term' is product of the colonial reign, where/when the impact of 'museumization' came into effect. Due to this effect the need of 'preservation' of our 'own' cultural identities were recognized. Folk and tribal arts were considered our very own arts, because this artistic practice has carried out by rural people dwelling in 'developing' places of India. They depict their modest and simple lifestyles in vibrant languages, which entail different styles, forms, aesthetics and materials depending on their geographical locations, traditional heritage and regional diversities. 

Folk & tribal art expresses the profound inclination of its creators/artisans towards their culture and nature. Although it is an art form which never enjoyed the feudal aristocratic patronage, but there has always been the penchant perseverance of its artisans towards their patrimonial arts and crafts which worked as an energetic lively force behind it. 

But these arts has always perceived as 'domestic' arts created only for a specific group of people or communities. This restricted underscore has sidelined these arts from the 'developed' notion of 'contemporary'. This division has discernible as more binary oppositions i.e. local, collective, rural, off-stream for folk and tribal arts and international/global, individualistic, urban, main-stream for modern & contemporary art. These binaries are as same as what one descry in the terms of 'illiterate' and 'educated', which usually judged under the western notion of 'intellectualism'. 

These notions of domestic, passive or alienated rather than the 'centralized' figuration of the society, one may concatenate to the status of 'women' as well. Because women too have confronted a discriminative dogma towards its identity as folk and tribal art has envisaged so far. They both are the subject of similar discourse, in the sense that they are born combating a 'masculine' opposite. 

Apart from it there were/are artists who have imbibed the folk and tribal elements and forms while their coadunation with modern and contemporary art. The Cholamandal Artist Village, situated near to Chennai, is one best attempt founded by K. C. S. Paniker, including around twenty resident artists/sculptors who live as a community, pool their skills, also run the Artist’s Handicraft Association and recognized internationally. Artists like S. H. Raza, K. G. Subramanyan, Arpana Caur, A. Ramachandran, Thota Vaikuntam, Laxma Gaud, Madhvi Parekh are to name a few who has contributed in recognizing folk & tribal elements into forefront of contemporary art practices. 

Throughout the last few years the galleries and some other organizations (both from private and government sectors) are coming forward and taking initiative to promote folk and tribal arts which is now venerably known  as 'Vernacular'/'demotic' instead of 'domestic'. But still the exigency of the present is to break down the existing discriminating binaries and to fill the gap between them. And to mark a strive to it, Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA), New Delhi has decided to provide a wider platform to Indian women folk and tribal artisans and young women art practitioners in collaboration of Sahitya Kala Parishad, New Delhi.

As folk & tribal art in India speaks of varied manifestations including drawing/painting (paper-work or cloth-work), embroidery, designing, weaving and textiles (handlooms), patta-chitras, basket-making, jewelry and toy making (handicrafts), sculpture, pottery, wooden and conch- shell carving, metal work, mask making, kitchen objects, weapons and human body itself (Tattoos and Piercing). These forms of art encompasses the visual expressions of wandering nomads, as it is primarily utilitarian and decorative rather than purely aesthetical (in contrast to fine arts*).

In India all these folk and tribal art forms are widely practised by women artisans. So, on the occasion of World Women’s Day, Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA), New Delhi, is inviting 46 women artisans from all over India, specialized in their region specific arts and crafts. These women artisans are representing the diverse creativity of India coming from different states. 

Among them 17 women artisans named Sangeeta Bora, Reena Logoi (Assam), Nyayir Riba, Pupi Buchi (Arunachal Pradesh), Nirmala Devi, Urmila Devi Paswan, Sita Devi, Moti Devi, Meera Thakur (Bihar), Lamajei Kamei, Shangkanna Parainei (Manipur), Gouri Bala Das, Allma Khatun, Renu Murmu, Mani Mala Chitrakar, Seema Benarjee, Mangla Nandi (West Bengal) are from Eastern Cultural Zone, 5 women artisans named Manisha Swami (Rajasthan), Sara Ibrahim, Dai Ben Khema, Bharati Ben (Gujarat), Manki Bapu Vaida (Maharashtra) from Western Cultural Zone, 12 artisans named Shafiyano Pawle, Chaiti Netam, Jaimati Coram (Chhattisgarh), Jebunisa, Gaytri Bai, Pavan Singh, Krishna Verma, Manisha Bajaj, Vandana Tiwari, Shanti Bai Marabu, Godawari Soni, Nanhi Bai Marko (Madhya Pradesh) from Central Cultural Zone, 4 artisans named Nazima Khalid (Uttar Pradesh), Pramila Bodh, Dinesh Kumari (Himachal Pradesh), Ritu Sharma (Haryana) are from North Cultural Zone, and 8 artisans named M. Muniratnamma, Suwali Bai Banjara, A. Rama Devi (Andhra Pradesh), Bhavani Natraja, Saraswati Ishwar Nayak (Karnataka), Arphi Begam, Sandhya Rani (Odisha), G. Nagarattham (Tamil Nadu) are representing the South Cultural Zone. 

These Indian women artisans are being accompanied with 11 Delhi based young practicing artists named Anjali Goel, Anjali Sinha, Chetna Verma, Gunjan Tyagi, Him Rajni, Neha Grewal, Nisha Aggarwal, Ranjeeta Kumari, Renu Bariwal, Ritu Manchanda and Sabia, who are directed to imbibe their ongoing/existing visual art styles/language with any of the above artisan’s work as they individually wish to. By this way, various thought processes, languages, and styles would transform their appearances while coming in close connection and interaction with various folk and tribal art forms. We wish this modulating process of mingling up will be resulted in experimental coalesced new art forms, which may generate some new future horizons for folk and tribal arts in contemporary times.