The five-day Meghalaya Art Festival with the theme Observation and Realism, which started on September 17, gave local artists an opportunity to showcase their works.
More than 200 artists from all over the state participated in the event, which also included photography. There was no upper age limit as “the festival aims to provide a platform to all the talents who have limited options to display their creations”.
The fourth edition of the annual festival has also featured an installation art by a young artist from Tripura, Sushanta Debbarma. A student of Shantiniketan’s Kala Bhavan, Debbarma said this was his first time at the art festival in the state.
“One of my professors had asked me to participate. I did not know anything about the place. So I took to the internet to find some information about the culture, tradition and society in Meghalaya. What struck me the most was the position of women in the society here. My work depicts that power to women,” said the 28-year-old artist on phone from Shantiniketan.
Debbarma said he could not stay for
the festival as he had to go back on September 15.
The unique characteristic about the bamboo installation is that the artist has not used any nails as the festival encouraged organic creations. The installation will now be a part of the district museum at Dakopgre in West Garo Hills.
“There is only one site-specific installation art as space is a problem. We also stress the use of organic materials,” said an official of the Department of Arts and Culture.
Debbarma said he could not execute what he had conceptualised because of the inclement weather. “Though I started working on the 11th, my work was affected by the rain,” he rued.
The festival witnessed a footfall of 50-80 every day.
The workshop at the venue was on textile designing focusing on tie and dye and batique print, mount board cut (multi-colour relief prints) and screen printing.
Rembrandt Lakmenlang Kharnaior, who was one of the resource persons at the workshop, said there were 20 particpants in the screen printing section. “We had only one part of screen printing last year but this year both paper and woodcut were included,” the artist said.
The textile designing attracted many non-artists, most of whom were traditional weavers, Kharnaior informed.
Like every year, this year too artists could sell their works at the festival.
In photography, the workshop included training in basics, fashion, travel and culture photography, and introduction to DSLR video. Photographs by young participants were also displayed at the venue.
“The main aim and objective of the festival is to bring together a group of artists from within the state to a common platform to enable them to showcase their talents in a variety of mediums of art, to the public and also to create an enriching experience full of knowledge on art that the people of the state will acquire from the festival by means of interaction with the artists and appreciation of art. The Art Festival aims at providing more room for talent exploration in new generations, promote marketisation of art and expand communication, cultural exchange and knowledge, sharing of various techniques and new contemporary ideas of art practices amongst the participating artists and the public in general,” D Kharjana, archivist, Art and Culture, had said in her keynote address on the day of inauguration.
Appreciating the change of venue from Shillong to Tura, Kharnaior said it was a major step and the festival “should be taken to other parts of the state for wider communication with artists and the public. “We pulled off the festival very well with limited resources. So with these limited resources we can take the festival to other places in Meghalaya and I am sure it will be a success,” he added.
West Garo Hills Deputy Commissioner Ram Singh, when asked whether the district administration would approach the department for similar events in future, said, “We will get some feedback from the artists and participants. We will definitely propose.”
On the art scenario in the state, Singh observed, “The main issue is that unlike many other states we don’t have drawing and arts as a subject at the school level and it’s a neglected area in school like sports. It is only a hobby. Children having good dexterity in arts can become architects or take up fine arts or design but that faculty of a child is never given an opportunity to develop in a more constructive way and it remains only a hobby.”
~ NM