Indian Artistes Network brings cultural richness to Indonesia
Indian Artistes Network brings cultural richness to Indonesia
Novan Iman Santosa, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
India has one of the oldest and richest cultures in the world as
can be seen today from many art forms ranging from architecture
and literature to dancing and painting.
Reflections of this can also be found here as India has
influenced Indonesian culture right from the early stages of
recorded history. The Mahabharata and Ramayana stories, for
example, are familiar here especially among the Balinese and
Javanese.
In the modern world, it appears that the cultural ties between
the two countries have been diminished due to the overwhelming
influence of Western culture.
A painting exhibition, Our Roots are Our Wings in the World
Trade Center's exhibition hall on Jl. Sudirman, South Jakarta,
tries to reconnect both countries through the 106 paintings on
display by 60 Indian artists from various backgrounds and
employing a wide range of styles. The exhibition was opened on
Monday by Indian Ambassador H.K. Singh and will end on Sunday.
This is the first exhibition held by the Indian Artistes
Network, which groups a large number of practitioners from
various fields ranging from dancing to painting.
"Indonesia is a natural choice for the holding of our first
ever exhibition abroad," organizer Ajit Vahadane of the Indian
Artistes Network told The Jakarta Post.
"We believe that Indians and Indonesians are blood brothers
even though the majority communities in both countries are from
different religions."
Ajit added that the religious tolerance displayed by the
majority communities in both countries was highly commendable.
In the exhibition, visitors are greeted by a large Ramayana
painting by S. Vishwanath, who specializes in traditional
painting using natural dyes on silk.
The painting, 115 centimeters by 236 centimeters, tells the
full story of King Rama and his wife, Queen Sita. The story
centers on Rama's efforts to find Sita, who was abducted by
Rahwana.
There is also a smaller Ramayana painting of 44 centimeters by
95 centimeters which narrates the more important episodes of the
tale.
Vishwanath's paintings are somewhat similar to Balinese
paintings on traditional and religious themes. They are detailed
and rich in color and ornament.
Not only that, Vishwanath also has a palm leaf engraving,
similar to lontar here, titled Krishna/Kamasutra. The 39-
centimeter-by-55-centimeter painting looks like an ordinary
painting telling the tale of the famous king Krishna in the
Mahabharata tale. It consists of a central picture encircled by
12 round panels that can be opened in two different directions.
If you turn the upper part of the panels, you will see various
animals while the lower part panels conceal various positions
from the famed Kamasutra.
Other examples of traditional Indian painting are provided by
the works of Vinod Purohit and Prakash Kumar.
Purohid mainly works with Rajashtani miniature painting which
usually pictures a royal procession with a nobleman riding on a
horse with lots of courtiers walking around him. The setting is
usually some kind of courtyard with hills and lakes in the
background.
His works are so detailed that you need a magnifying glass to
see the details, claimed Ajit.
With or without a magnifying glass, Purohid's paintings are
awash with intricate detail. For instance, one can almost feel
the texture of the clothes wore by the figures in his paintings.
Purohit also uses the Royal Courts stamped paper used during
British rule as his medium for painting his Rajashtani
miniatures.
The third Indian style is the Tajore emboss style of painting,
represented by the work of Kumar, which is dominated by brownish
and yellowish hues.
"The real Tajore emboss paintings use golden foil but these
are very expensive to produce," Vahadane said.
"The paintings exhibited here use gold paint instead of foil,
but there is no compromising as regards quality. The other
features remain the same."
Despite the strong influence of traditional painting, there is
also a great variety of more contemporary and modern works,
including abstract and figurative works.
Devdatta Padekar, for example, exhibits his pastel on paper
Fear, which is very expressive.
Meanwhile, a strong study of light is presented by Sudhir
Pawar in his oil on canvas, Cityscape, in which he plays with the
shadows produced by a city block.
A similar cityscape painting is presented by Deepak Jogdand.
His water color on paper My little town, features interesting
rough strokes dominated by violet hues.
There are many other contemporary paintings also on display.
"In fact, I have more paintings available but I do not have
the money to display them all due to lack of preparation.
"For example, we could not provide visitors with a catalog
this time. But, I promise we will do it better next year, with
better preparation and more paintings," said Vahadane, who has
already secured the use of the World Trade Center's exhibition
hall for next year's exhibition.