Information & Artist Biographies.pdf - Nottingham Asian Arts Council
Information & Artist Biographies.pdf - Nottingham Asian Arts Council
Information & Artist Biographies.pdf - Nottingham Asian Arts Council
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Additional <strong>Information</strong><br />
Pardhan Gond Paintings – A partnership between the New Art Exchange and the Adivasi <strong>Arts</strong> Trust.<br />
(www.adivasiartstrust.org)<br />
Venkat Raman Singh Shyam and Rajendra Kumar Shyam are two accomplished Gond artists that will<br />
be coming as special guests from Madhya Pradesh, in the heart of tribal India, for a special event at<br />
the New Art Exchange, <strong>Nottingham</strong>. They are coming with collections of their beautiful narrative<br />
paintings that are have been created painstakingly by hand. While once artists of this little known<br />
indigenous community used natural earthy shades to paint auspicious designs for festivals and family<br />
occasions on the walls and floors of their traditional mud huts, they are now perfectly adept at creating<br />
masterpieces with modern materials, bright acrylic colours and ink. Pardhan Gond paintings tell<br />
fantastic stories that also contain simple wisdom and often reflect on nature. Each painting is unique<br />
and eminently collectable.<br />
Creative workshops have been organised at the New Art Exchange on the themes of this cross<br />
cultural event that has received support from the Indian <strong>Council</strong> of Cultural Relations and the British<br />
<strong>Council</strong> to bring the artists together with young people and digital professionals from Britain to explore<br />
new ways of understanding and celebrating the rich cultural heritage of the Pardhan Gonds.<br />
Animation<br />
Working with the Gond artists and animator from the Adivasi <strong>Arts</strong> Trust, Tara Douglas, participants will<br />
try out ways of bringing Gond artwork to life in animation using simple techniques of 2D puppet<br />
animation. The workshop will include a screening of the first Gond animation film “The Best of the<br />
Best”.<br />
Automata<br />
Professional kinetic artist and tutor in theatre design tutor at the Rose Bruford College in London,<br />
Stephen Guy, will guide participants in adapting the 2 dimensional designs of the Gond art for 3<br />
dimensional moving sculptures.<br />
Storytelling<br />
Hear the wonderful oral storytelling traditions of the Gonds vividly brought to life by an experienced<br />
storyteller Seema Anand. Ideal for families.<br />
Presentation by Saurabh Gupta<br />
Graphic Designer Saurabh Gupta has been developing ways of adapting Gond painting techniques<br />
for commercial design. He will be giving a presentation of his work and showing how he makes digital<br />
brushes.
<strong>Biographies</strong><br />
VENKAT RAMAN SINGH SHYAM<br />
Venkat was born in 1970 to a humble Pardhan Gond family living in the village Sejohra, in eastern<br />
Madhya Pradesh. He began painting at the age of ten, and for five years worked as an apprentice<br />
under his uncle, the late Gond master artist Jangarh Singh Shyam. The most innovative and<br />
experimental of Jangarh’s artistic successors, Venkat has worked in a variety of media and styles,<br />
ranging from figurative and naturalistic drawings and acrylic paintings on canvas and silk, to more<br />
decorative work in papier maché, ceramic tiles, glass, aluminium and sheet iron. He has done<br />
ambitious commissions for India’s Taj Hotel Group, and recently completed a series on the Mumbai<br />
terrorist attacks of November 2008—which he personally witnessed while visiting the Taj Hotel on<br />
business. Venkat also organized the impromptu team of fellow Gond artists who painted cells for the<br />
UK-produced ‘The Best of the Best’ animated film.<br />
Venkat’s work has been collected and exhibited internationally (this is his third exhibition-related trip<br />
to Europe, and in April 2010 he will have a solo exhibition in Boston). Despite such globalized<br />
exposure, he retains a deep commitment to his Pardhan Gond cultural heritage, which he celebrates<br />
through his depictions of traditional subject matter. He draws inspiration from his personal memories<br />
of growing up in different village communities, listening to tribal elders recount traditional myths and<br />
oral histories (which he is now recording), and photographing Gond festivals, ceremonies and daily<br />
life.<br />
RAJENDRA SHYAM<br />
Rajendra Shyam was born in 1974 in the remote village of Patangarh, in the jungle of eastern Madhya<br />
Pradesh, central India. As a child he was compelled to give up his education so as to help support his<br />
family, by doing daily wage labour on road construction. In 1996, his uncle—the seminal Gond master<br />
artist Jangarh Singh Shyam—recognized Rajendra’s artistic talents and encouraged him to work as<br />
his apprentice in Bhopal. He has subsequently pursued his own career as an independent artist.<br />
Although he has participated in many exhibitions in India (e.g., at New Delhi’s Crafts Museum, and<br />
Bhopal’s Swaraj Bhavan, Bharat Bhavan, and Adivasi Lok Kala Parishad), this is the first significant<br />
display of his work abroad.<br />
Rajendra draws inspiration from his memory of traditional stories, learned during his rural youth and<br />
childhood. It was then that his artistic talents were first recognized by his family and community, who<br />
admired his renderings of dignas—auspicious designs painted on walls and floors. Since moving to<br />
Bhopal he has adopted modern media, especially ink on paper and acrylics on canvas. His wife<br />
Sushila often assists him in filling in the details of his work, a practice customary among Pardhan<br />
Gond artists.
The Evolution of Contemporary Pardhan Gond Art<br />
This exhibition presents a selection of paintings by two contemporary Gond tribal artists from central<br />
India: Venkat Raman Singh Shyam and Rajendra Shyam. These paintings and drawings can be seen<br />
both as representative of their individual styles, and as fine examples of a larger, recently evolving<br />
indigenous art movement.<br />
Venkat and Rajendra belong to their tribe’s Pardhan clan, which traditionally provides the larger Gond<br />
community with professional Bardic priests. They also are members of the extended family now<br />
recognized for transforming sacred Gond myths and stories into iconic<br />
and narrative imagery. In 1981, their uncle—Jangarh Singh Shyam—became the first Pardhan Gond<br />
to depict their tribal deities using modern media: government talent scouts visited his village,<br />
appreciated one of his murals painted with natural pigments, and encouraged him to experiment with<br />
poster paints on commercial paper. He was then invited to move to Bhopal (the capital of his native<br />
state, Madhya Pradesh), where he explored and mastered various media—ranging from silkscreen<br />
prints to acrylics on canvas. Jangarh soon received prominent mural commissions and international<br />
renown, including invitations to participate in exhibitions in Paris and Japan. He also identified<br />
talented members of his family and clan, who he encouraged to move to Bhopal to serve as studio<br />
assistants, and—depending on their abilities—to develop distinctive styles of their own. In time, some<br />
of these apprentices, like his nephews Venkat and Rajendra, have become recognized as<br />
accomplished artists in their own right.<br />
Although Jangarh Singh Shyam tragically committed suicide in Japan in 2001, the art movement he<br />
initiated continues to flourish—especially here in the UK, where over the past decade other Pardhan<br />
Gond artists have been invited to paint murals (e.g., at Islington’s Masala Zone Restaurant), exhibit<br />
their work (at various private galleries and public museums—such as the Rebecca Hossack Art<br />
Gallery and the Museum<br />
of London), and have been celebrated for their children’s books illustrations (available through<br />
www.tarabooks.com). Most remarkable of all has been their foray into animated films, which began<br />
with a 2006 collaboration between the Scotland based company West Highland Animation and an<br />
impromptu team of Gond artists—including Venkat and Rajendra—which produced a delightful short<br />
animated film entitled “The Best of the Best” (see http://www.talleststory.com). Inspired by a traditional<br />
Gond tale, this film incorporates music and hand painted cells by Gond artists. Its popularity with a<br />
broad spectrum of audiences (the film soundtrack is available in English, Gaelic, Hindi as well as in<br />
Gondi and other tribal languages) led to the establishment of the London-based Adivasi Art Trust, a<br />
non profit organization dedicated to advancing recognition of Gond art in<br />
general, and the production of similar animated films perpetuating India’s rich tribal heritage in<br />
particular.<br />
Thus this exhibition of artworks by Venkat Raman Singh Shyam and Rajendra Shyam serves as one<br />
of a growing number of public celebrations of a tribal culture whose creative genius still flourishes by<br />
blending indigenous traditions with contemporary media.<br />
- John H. Bowles<br />
Art Historian and Critic