By Arshad Me'raj - Greater Kashmir - Srinagar, J&K, IndiaSunday, November 11, 2007
15-day international workshop concludes
15-day international workshop concludes
Srinagar: A Shikara [traditional wooden boat] buried half inside the earth and rest coaxed with barbed wire.
A dark room containing the pictures of disappeared persons of the Kashmir on one wall faced by a painting of a woman.
Display of scrap collected from abandoned houses occupied by paramilitary forces and of migrant Kashmiri pandits.
Superimposition of seven photographs of Sufi saints of Iran on seven different shrines and mosques of Kashmir.
These are some of the installations and art works exhibited during the exhibition on the concluding day of 15-day international workshop organised by Khoj and KASHYAPS* here Sunday.
Sujan Chitrakar of Kathmandu Nepal who had buried half of the Shikara inside the earth titled “Barbed Wires Coax The Boat As It Tries To Fly,” while speaking to Greater Kashmir said, “The Shikara coaxed with barbed wire, which symbolises torture and is seen everywhere in Kashmir, depicts the pain most Kashmiris are suffering from.”
“My work also depicts the pain which still haunts the Kashmiris,” Sujan.
About the famous couplet of Mughal Emperor Jehangir:
A dark room containing the pictures of disappeared persons of the Kashmir on one wall faced by a painting of a woman.
Display of scrap collected from abandoned houses occupied by paramilitary forces and of migrant Kashmiri pandits.
Superimposition of seven photographs of Sufi saints of Iran on seven different shrines and mosques of Kashmir.
These are some of the installations and art works exhibited during the exhibition on the concluding day of 15-day international workshop organised by Khoj and KASHYAPS* here Sunday.
Sujan Chitrakar of Kathmandu Nepal who had buried half of the Shikara inside the earth titled “Barbed Wires Coax The Boat As It Tries To Fly,” while speaking to Greater Kashmir said, “The Shikara coaxed with barbed wire, which symbolises torture and is seen everywhere in Kashmir, depicts the pain most Kashmiris are suffering from.”
“My work also depicts the pain which still haunts the Kashmiris,” Sujan.
About the famous couplet of Mughal Emperor Jehangir:
Agar Firdous Ba Rueye Zamin Ast,
Hamein Asto, Hamein Asto Hamien Ast
(If there is paradise on earth, it is here, it is here, it is here) written on the Shikara with an image effect, Sujan said, “The couplet is written in the style so the people could thoroughly concentrate on the verses, which calls Kashmir as a paradise on earth.”
Gargi Raina of Baroda displayed the pictures of disappeared persons inside a dark room, the entrance of which is covered by a colourful drape (Kashmir, beautiful from outside and troubled inside).
The people interested in watching the work had to pick up a torch and walk towards the room.
“The torch is needed to search the things in dark. On one wall there are photographs of disappeared persons and on the facing wall there is a painting of a woman, who depicts as their mother. One can also find emptiness inside the room as there are shelves which are empty,” Gargi told Greater Kashmir.
Sonal Jain of Assam who had collected scraps from the abandoned houses of Srinagar city said the collected items narrate their own stories.
“Titled Box full of (Someone Elses) Memories, these stories need to be told through the objects which were left behind by the people,” Sonal said adding that these left over objects were considered by those people as not so useful.
Most of scrap material comprised of newspaper pages, calendars, paintings, notebooks of children and other house articles. Sonal had also recorded the statements of people about their experiences during the turmoil.
Tooraj Khamenezade of Iran had made an installation in which he had superimposed seven portraits of seven Sufi saints on seven mosques and shrines of Kashmir valley depicting the relation between Kashmir and Iran.
The seven pictures were hanging on seven branches of a Chinar** also showing 700 years of Sufism as well.
Hannah Mathews of England, Fiel Dos Santos Rafael of Mozambique, Shambhavi Singh of New Delhi/Patna, Nikhil Chopra of Mumbai, Wasim Wani of Srinagar, Ravinder Jamwal and Archinder Kumar of Jammu, Shawkat Kadjoo, Shafi Chaman and GK Cartoonist Malik Sajjad*** also depicted their works during the exhibition.
The workshop coordinator and renowned artist Masood Hussain while talking to Greater Kashmir said: “This workshop organised for the first time in cultural history of Kashmir was altogether different from canvas painting”.
He said that, unlike traditional art workshops wherein artists work is restricted on canvas and use of conventional material for making sculptures, the participants in this workshop experimented on different art forms.
* Khoj Kasheer is the national organisation engaged in bridging the gap between artist communities at national and international level, through workshops and exchange programmes. KASHYAPS is the Srinagar-based contemporary artist community.
About this workshop, you can also read: http://etalaat.net/english/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3194&Itemid=27
** A Chinar is a gigantic sized tree, found growing throughout the valley. Its scientific name is Platanus orientalis. Its family is plataneae. A deciduous tree, Chinar traces its origin to Greece. Its incredible beauty has to be seen to be believed.
The tree is at its most elegance and exuberance during autumn. Though its majesty can be seen all through the year. Iqbal, the poet of the East, traces the warmth of the Kashmir soil to the "blaze of Chinars it nurses in its bosom".
A Chinar grows up to a height of 25 meters and a girth exceeding 50 feet in certain cases. The tree with the largest circumference of 60 feet is located at a village named Chattergam in central Kashmir (from: http://www.kashmirhub.com/plants-of-kashmir/chinar.html).
***Visit Sajjad at http://www.kashmirblackandwhite.com/
Hamein Asto, Hamein Asto Hamien Ast
(If there is paradise on earth, it is here, it is here, it is here) written on the Shikara with an image effect, Sujan said, “The couplet is written in the style so the people could thoroughly concentrate on the verses, which calls Kashmir as a paradise on earth.”
Gargi Raina of Baroda displayed the pictures of disappeared persons inside a dark room, the entrance of which is covered by a colourful drape (Kashmir, beautiful from outside and troubled inside).
The people interested in watching the work had to pick up a torch and walk towards the room.
“The torch is needed to search the things in dark. On one wall there are photographs of disappeared persons and on the facing wall there is a painting of a woman, who depicts as their mother. One can also find emptiness inside the room as there are shelves which are empty,” Gargi told Greater Kashmir.
Sonal Jain of Assam who had collected scraps from the abandoned houses of Srinagar city said the collected items narrate their own stories.
“Titled Box full of (Someone Elses) Memories, these stories need to be told through the objects which were left behind by the people,” Sonal said adding that these left over objects were considered by those people as not so useful.
Most of scrap material comprised of newspaper pages, calendars, paintings, notebooks of children and other house articles. Sonal had also recorded the statements of people about their experiences during the turmoil.
Tooraj Khamenezade of Iran had made an installation in which he had superimposed seven portraits of seven Sufi saints on seven mosques and shrines of Kashmir valley depicting the relation between Kashmir and Iran.
The seven pictures were hanging on seven branches of a Chinar** also showing 700 years of Sufism as well.
Hannah Mathews of England, Fiel Dos Santos Rafael of Mozambique, Shambhavi Singh of New Delhi/Patna, Nikhil Chopra of Mumbai, Wasim Wani of Srinagar, Ravinder Jamwal and Archinder Kumar of Jammu, Shawkat Kadjoo, Shafi Chaman and GK Cartoonist Malik Sajjad*** also depicted their works during the exhibition.
The workshop coordinator and renowned artist Masood Hussain while talking to Greater Kashmir said: “This workshop organised for the first time in cultural history of Kashmir was altogether different from canvas painting”.
He said that, unlike traditional art workshops wherein artists work is restricted on canvas and use of conventional material for making sculptures, the participants in this workshop experimented on different art forms.
* Khoj Kasheer is the national organisation engaged in bridging the gap between artist communities at national and international level, through workshops and exchange programmes. KASHYAPS is the Srinagar-based contemporary artist community.
About this workshop, you can also read: http://etalaat.net/english/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3194&Itemid=27
** A Chinar is a gigantic sized tree, found growing throughout the valley. Its scientific name is Platanus orientalis. Its family is plataneae. A deciduous tree, Chinar traces its origin to Greece. Its incredible beauty has to be seen to be believed.
The tree is at its most elegance and exuberance during autumn. Though its majesty can be seen all through the year. Iqbal, the poet of the East, traces the warmth of the Kashmir soil to the "blaze of Chinars it nurses in its bosom".
A Chinar grows up to a height of 25 meters and a girth exceeding 50 feet in certain cases. The tree with the largest circumference of 60 feet is located at a village named Chattergam in central Kashmir (from: http://www.kashmirhub.com/plants-of-kashmir/chinar.html).
***Visit Sajjad at http://www.kashmirblackandwhite.com/
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