For more than four months now, artist Ravi Chunchula has been painting grim realities of the pandemic. During the early days of lockdown, he had met a few construction workers near his house in Tellapur, prepared to walk 2000 kilometres to their hometown in Bihar. “The way the migrant crisis unfolded was terrible,” he says. The Hyderabad-based artist’s works are part of an online show ‘New Stories in Old Frames’ organised by Dhi Artspace in Ameerpet. Four artists of this group show, including Aniruddha Parit, Mainaz Bano, Poushali Das and Sanket Viramgami used miniatures to convey the social, political, economic, environmental concerns of contemporary times.
Inspired by observations
In ‘Corridors of Contemplation’ Ravi paints scenes he witnessed during this journey — a conch, banana leaf swarming with worms (indicating a shortage of food), earthen pot (to show that COVID-19 began in summer), cardboard box (movements restricted to lockdown/relying on online shopping) and a man carrying a pot with a dead plant (concrete jungle due to deforestation).
The conch, for him, represents the days when people blew conch shells believing COVID-19 will be blown away. “I found that funny,” he says and explains his thought process, “A miniature has a storytelling quality to its style; the art centres around kings, their stories and also tales of Panchatantra; I use the same pattern to discuss contemporary matters.”
In ‘Reminiscence of Daily musings II’, the artist portrays the region around him. “I could see a lot of social change. People’s attitude towards municipal workers has transformed; they realised their importance and started posting photographs of their appreciation on social media,” he adds.
The artist’s works are also layered with humour and satire, a skill he picked up during his tryst as a cartoonist with BBC Hindi in Delhi. One such work is of a king looking at a man wearing a mask. “It is the duty of people in power to protect citizens; They claim they are doing it but the ground reality is different.”
Rhythmic pattern
Influenced by miniature paintings, artist Sanket Viramgam creates stories by blending mythological figures and incidents from his immediate surroundings. He also uses the embroidery Kantha craft work to juxtapose patterns and textures with figures to create a rhythmic pattern. “Miniature is a tradition and it will never go out of fashion,” says Sanket. His ‘Dancing Girls’ on a large canvas gives art lovers a feel of spending a relaxed evening in a park. In this tranquil world of Nature, we see small figures of a couple enjoying togetherness, friends dancing, playing and birds.
Creating miniatures on canvas poses many challenges. “Visualising small forms with detailing is tough on a canvas,” he elaborates. The artist who is preparing for a solo show in November, also featured in the India Art Fair in 2020.
Lucknow as muse
Work by Mainaz Bano
Art practitioner Mainaz Bano draws inspiration from her hometown Lucknow. Her panels, highly influenced by Mughal miniatures, tell stories in her own style. Blending the past and the present and set in a regal setting, her paintings draw you in with their visual imagery. “It is important to know our past to understand how we have progressed; this cultural awareness opens new horizons in the young generation,” she says.
Lucknow is her muse; she reads a lot about its history and often visits the museum to know more on the Mughal period and how the Empire was rich and economically ahead. She paints elements of the city in her works. “Hindus and Muslims have had good relations in the city. Erstwhile Begums have built temples and the two communities celebrate the feeling of love and unity,” she says.
(The works can be viewed at dhiartspace.com till August 5)
