The maiden Face and Body Art Festival hosted by Shillong was fun all the way, says Rajiv Roy
SHILLONG HOSTED the maiden Face and Body Art Festival, a street show at Old Assembly campus in Police Bazar junction recently. The event was conceptualized by city-based painter Jaya Kalra as 22 budding artists of Jharokha Art Institution, run by her, portrayed some of the most contemporary issues afflicting mankind today.
“The event was organized for the first time here to popularize art and take it out of four walls and into the masses,” she said.
Body art is no different from usual art but done on a different medium and using different media. “The body is used as a canvas and body-safe cosmetic colours are used to paint. Body art is temporary in nature and the same canvas (body) can be used again and again to showcase the art. Tattooing is another form of body art that takes a long to fade,” said Jaya who sourced safe body colours from USA as per prescribed international safety standards as they are not available in the country.
Jaya said it may take some time for this art form to take off in India because of non-availability of body-safe colours. “None of the Indian manufacturers or importers carries this product on their shelves and importing them is a very costly affair. They need to be convinced that this is a viable business so that these colours can be made available in India at affordable prices,” she added.
This form of art is also a strong medium to convey messages. To make it easier for the public to understand what is being conveyed through this show, it has to be more interesting and entertaining, and so the themes chosen were very contemporary in nature. The students had the freedom to choose their subjects, with many touching upon social issues. “It is also reviving the art forms practiced by tribals in ancient times during rituals. It is fun and can be practiced during festivals, parties, national festivals, etc. The purpose of this street show on face and body art is also to put Shillong on the world map as this form of art till now is practiced only in the west and restricted just to stages and theatres in our country,” said Jaya, a former general council member of Lalit Kala Akademi.
Some of the social issues messaged were female foeticide, tiger poaching, water and environment conservation, terrorism and corruption and the disaster in Uttarakhand. At the same time, younger students entertained the crowd by painting a colourful and lively joker, the twinkling night view of the stars, beautiful flowers, gardens and butterflies, the terrible dragon and the pirates of the Caribbean. Depicted also were the famous Nohkalikai falls of Meghalaya, a cute Dalmatian and a cowboy from the Wild West, amongst others.
While other forms of art such as dancing, singing, etc. are popular and TV shows on these are household favourites, painting and allied subjects such as sculpture are still regarded as esoteric. In the west today, scores of people practice this art to earn their living and it could well become a career for many here in India, too. It is not necessary that a person has to be an artist to practice this form of art.
“There is a wide domain for this art which could extend to body art parlours, temporary tattoos, cheer leaders, sports team-supporters, make-up artists to name a few. In the west it is a huge business with annual conventions, festivals and fairs on face and body art,” Jaya said. The future of this art in India is very bright as Indians are traditionally a very colourful people with festivals like Holi, Janmashtami and the practice of Henna. “We could even have cultural exchanges based on expression through this medium. Till now we did this only in the form of costumes. We could compete and stand out on the international arena in this form,” she said.
While teaching art to her students, Jaya found that many parents were reluctant to send their children for even two hours a week to the art class and many times the child would be forced by them to leave the class to do more ‘useful things’ like studies. ‘People must realize how these young souls need to express their inner selves in any form, and for those whom art comes as naturally as breathing, it’s criminal to remove this life support system from them just because we so-called elder and more experienced adults know that the world does not move without money, for which one needs to earn and for which one needs to study and become a doctor, engineer, architect, etc.,” she said with a concern.
Why did she choose Police Bazar junction for the show? Because it is the heart of the town, Jaya said. She had prepared her students for the body art ever since the idea germinated some time ago. So when the colours arrived, the children took to this art like a fish takes to water.