Paper, Ink, Think : Ck Lal

 

Artist SC Suman possesses a pleasant personality. He has the exuberance of a homemaker thrilled of her creations and displays similar enthusiasm in showing visitioes around at the Siddartha Art Gallery. Like a proud matriarch, the youthful curator of the gallery, Sangeeta Thapa, looks approvingly as the painter explains new themes he has explored in this latest works. The artiste probably fears being misunderstood and takes care to clarify yhat his experimentalism lies well within the accepted boundaries of traditional Mithila painting. Perhaps he believes  that prudence is necessary in playing  with a style known to be older than the bramhsthan banyan trees in Mithila villages and almost  equally scantified through generations of veneration.

In contemporary  usage, the term mithila painting  stand for a curious amalgam of frescoes, line drawings, floor decorations, and ceremonial art made for rites of passage. Suman has skillfully complemented the ensemble with what are known as installation art- the reproduction of a slice of life so that a viewer can experience the situation without being a part of it. An installation in authentic, but is is not real. perhaps that is what all forms of art aim to achiever; it is just that installations are easier  to relate with the simplicity  of their complexity.

Mithila painting has evolved over the millennia mono- color beginning of rendom lines that were once drawn on freshly ground rice paste. They may have been made to welcome divine spirits  into humble homes.Images frescoes of  eart- plestered walls were later incorporated into the style. Among with improvised Mathili songs, Mithila paintings  became a form of expression for women of Brahmim and kayastha families.

Men played with words in prose and poetry. Female literacy was some what low even in  relatively comfortable families. Due to casts taboos, their women would not go out into the fields, collect firewood  or tends to cattle. They looked aftre children,performed  household  duties and had some time  to spare and reflect upon the  mysteries  of life.It found outlets in impromptu group songs, and even more so in the paintings thhey did with implements and materials readily avalable in villages. Aesthetics  was an integral part, but  the point was to express  suppressed emotions  rather than impress  viwers with artisti prowess of the painter.

Pens were made from the stems of bamboo foliage. Old clothes warpped around thin sticks would be brushes. Pigments were 'manufactured'  from cow dung, clay, charcoal, earth, flowers, roots, seeds, soot, and most naturally for housewives, from different grains  and  spices in the kitchen . They were myths attached to different  dyes. 

The purest black was produced  from the smok of mustard - oil lamp lit in the moonless night Ambasya when its flame its flame ate  the darkness and diposited the soot to make perfect  Kajal. Colors  made with the sap of some plants had to be preaperd when there was no fruit or flower . Different leaves gave multiple hues of green, but plucking young shoots was forbidden. The tintof turmeric  could be altered  with the addition  of certain flour, but care had to be taken to minimizer using edible stuff. Red was prepared from Sindoor  fruits,  but only married women could break open the nut.

Extrem care was taken not  to waste  any  of these  precious matters. There is more to be the idea of organic material  than commonly  understood. The key concept is to use as little expensive  ingredients  as practicable when including  in artistc pursuits.

Young girls began to apprenticel by grinding components to produce dyes. Theuy would then mature to reproduce outlines and draw broders. It two  years perfect the art of drawing legends on walls and sketch  figures of significance  from Tantra for marriage  rituals. Unlik great painters of Europe and Asia, Maithil women did not get to perfect their skills in the hallowed percincts of churches or monasteries. They had no patrons, and did their work mostly during leisure hours stolen from the pressures of daily chores. Yet fine work manship was still a veryl important  part of their work.

Freedom from the reins of religion or demands of market had its advantages. Mathil women could experiment with colors, exaggerate features or play with tints to emphasize the theme of the painting. All forms of krishna dancing with different Gopinis in Ras Lila could be similar, and yet each pair would be different to the discerning eye. The eye of princess Janki (Sita) beholds Prince Ram woth a mixture of emotions  that would  require a million  words  or a thousand frames; creators of a Mithila painting had to capture the moment with a few strokes of a rudimentary brush. Sience oraganic pigments on rough surfaces do not respond so well to light and shade, painters play with the dynamism of lines and thickness of paint to obtain similar effects  in their creations.

All these memories - some remembered, others reconstructed - rushed through the mind while going through the exhibition of Suman's collection called" Mithila Cosmos: new narratives" at the Siddhartha Art Gallery.

Mithila painting has been a female domain for ages. Entry of males in to the fild is a recent phenomenon. The development seems to have transformed the midium.  Suman's works are minutely detailed , almost Thangka -like, yet they manage  to retain the spontaneity and gaiety, pain and pleasure ,  love and longing, and ethos and pathos of life of Mithila. I need, only his methods  of narration are different; there are very few new narratives as such in the cosmos.

One of the purposes of Mithila painting, especially when used as wall hanging in the Kobar ghar ( the room of cohabitation of the newlywed), was not make the couple think. Invitation to indulge in cerebral exercises in what should have been a place for copulation might appear odd in today's world, but it was considered to be the most proper way to start a new life.

Entry of male artiests into the predominently female world of Mithila painting will also bring in professionalism and transform the medium into exhibits of possession. The diaspora wants to carry a piece of Mithila to wherever they live, and paintings are the most convenient way to living with the illusion of rootedness. Their tastes and preferences would  probably influence  the section  of the ames- the Buddha, Himalaya, the Janki Temple, for examples- and higher level of expertise  would  be expected as traditional paintings enter the competitive market.

 However, one of the key elements of Mithila painting is irreverence bordering on playfulness. As long as that remains, art and life shall continue to be interwined in one of the most vibrant of world cultures. Perhaps new themes and techniques will super new thoughts, too? That is something Mithila and Maithils every where desperately need.

Republica

Friday,April1 2011

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