Craft and Community Development Foundation to organise “Modern Tribal” selections
Craft and Community Development Foundation is going to organise a “Modern Tribal” group show which are the selections from the Gondwana Art Project. The show will be on view from 7th to 9th February 2023 at Visual Arts Gallery, India Habitat Centre, New, Institution Area, Lodi Colony, New Delhi, Delhi 110003 from 11 am till 7 pm. The show is curated by Antara Dey.
The artists’ List :
Anita Balu, Anita Shyam, Chandrakali, Geeta Bhariya, Jyoti Uikey, Rahul Shyam, Rajesh Mor, Rambai, Ramesh Shyam, Ramesh Vyam, Ravi Tekam, Rita Shyam, Santoshi Shyam, Sher Singh, Sita Meda, Sugiya Devi, Suresh Dhruve, Suresh Kumar, Yashpal Baranda
Medium used – Acrylic on Canvases and Papers
Curator – Antara Dey (Visual Artist & art/ folklore researcher)
Key points of the event :
Date – 7th to 9th feb 2023
venue – Visual Arts Gallery, India Habitat Centre, New, Institution Area, Lodi Colony, New Delhi, Delhi 110003
Craft and community Development Foundation (CCDF)
Craft and Community Development Foundation (CCDF) is a registered not-for-profit social entity set up with the aim to support and fund projects that enhance livelihood for communities focused on the art and crafts sector.
The Foundation takes up projects for upskilling artisans by introducing new concepts and design, keeping intact the authenticity of their art. The ongoing Gondwana Art Project is focused on tribal artisans from the Gondwana Region in central India, practicing Gond, Bhil, Warli, Sohrai & Kohvar art. The Foundation selects artists for this project based on an assessment of the quality of work, talent, and current economic status.
The objective is to create a platform for these tribal artists to present their work and their perspectives demonstrating their creativity and craftsmanship, and introducing new methods and techniques that express both traditional and contemporary imagery and values. The artworks created under the project are showcased to a global audience, opening new markets for these traditional artforms.
The artists involved in The Gondwana Art project create artworks, under guidance and mentoring by CCDF designers. The project aims to ensure that the artworks are unique pieces of tribal art incorporating design elements keeping in mind a wide range of global audiences. During the project the artisans are allowed to freely express their skills and experiment with new techniques, design and color palette, to create modern & contemporary tribal artworks. CCDF has facilitated artisans to work remotely through online platforms and digital media, ensuring uninterrupted engagement with CCDF designers even during lockdowns due to COVID. CCDF is attempting to provide a sustained livelihood to the tribal artisans engaged under The Gondwana Art Project, during these unprecedented times.
About the Exhibition
“This exhibition brings together artworks that embody contemporary art through the lens of tribal artists – something CCDF has been working to get the limelight for years on.
Over the centuries, artists from the innumerable tribes of India have strove to express the idea of their lifestyle, lore & culture through art, music, textile & more. The most common way they found was to incorporate their folk art onto materials that could be purchased by the ‘mainland’ people and hence keeping the folk art alive. This meant that while a specific form of folk art should have been made on the peripheral walls of a hut somewhere in an undisclosed village, the artist now translated the artwork on a paper or a piece of cloth or even on bags and pottery for them to be accessible to the outsider public. This gave way to entrepreneurs hiring such folk artists to mass- produce objects solely for selling purposes – making no effort on keeping the artform itself alive.
CCDF with its ideologies to undertake projects for upskilling artisans by introducing new concepts and designs, has made sure to keep the authenticity of the art and craft intact. The artworks in this exhibition as well as the repertoire that the foundation has created through the selected folk artists, stand true as a testament, to show that the folk artists from the hidden villages of the geographical land of India, are equally if not more experienced and gifted as contemporary artists than any other gallery-represented contemporary artist. The paintings are made exclusively on canvas and paper, using mediums such as acrylic colours, pen and ink, giving way to nuanced thoughts of modernity and progressiveness, while the usage of lines, form, composition and authentic storytelling, holding on tightly to the traditional aspect of creating folk or tribal art. These artists thread stories from their contemporary world breaking stereotypes, forming protective statements and making bold changes to the otherwise banal nature of their art, told through centuries.”
