The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

CULTURE

Artscape
Darpan: Mirroring the folk art with a touch of surrealism
Ravi Bhatia

The path between realism and surrealism.

Priya Art Gallery is showcasing the works of the well-known Bengali artist Santa Manna at Hotel Crown Plaza Surya here. The exhibition, which is on till May 30, showcases some of the most exquisite paintings of the artist.

Born in Bagnan, West Bengal, Santa Manna took to painting from early childhood and subsequently graduated from the Government College of Art and Craft, Kolkata. Santa’s paintings have a tremendous folk lore and folk art influence.

According to critics, Santa gracefully toes the middle path between realism and surrealism.

He has earlier held several exhibitions in Kolkata and New Delhi. His paintings can be found in many collections abroad.

Agony and the ecstasy

Fotomedia, a pioneer in the visual communication industry in India, organised a sneak preview of ‘Pictures from here’, a photography exhibition by Sunil Gupta, an artist who is one of the original voices from the identity politics era.

The exhibition, on at Visual Arts Gallery, India Habitat Center, from May 4-14, is a narrative taken from four of the artist’s exhibition projects and a documentary film reflecting his desire to create a cultural history for others and for himself as a gay Indian man living with HIV in the West.

Exiles: Sunil Gupta’s collection of photographs.

The stories interleave between being autobiographical and societal at large.

“Fotomedia is committed to promote excellence in photography as a means of effective social communication. Sunil is an extremely talented photographer and I feel delighted to present his work to the Indian audience,” says Radhika Singh, Director Fotomedia Pvt Ltd.

“ I am very glad to be here in India and showcase my experiences through my work. ‘Pictures From Here’ is my solo exhibition, which is a survey of my works since 1994, including the newly produced works. I am looking forward to a positive response from the audience, who have undoubtedly matured over the years and who understand a sensitive issue like homosexuality,” said Sunil Gupta, Curator, The Organization for Visual Arts.

Sunil Gupta highlights the experiences of gay South Asian men and in particular those suffering from HIV. Sunil’s collection of photographs, both political and intimate, address the experience of being a gay Indian man in Europe, living between cultures. The four series featured include Exiles, Trespass, from here to eternity and homelands. A documentary film called (A World without) pity - a film about being gay, Indian and HIV positive (DVD), will also be show cased in the exhibition. Lyrical and powerful, both documentary and constructed fictions, they explore post modern social identities. It is a milestone in art’s engagement with race and homosexuality.

‘Pictures from here’, integrates details of Sunil’s domestic life and his fight against HIV with a broader political agenda. Combining the romantic ideals of an Indian identity with issues of gender, multi-cultural personal spaces and now a chronic illness that threatens to explode. Sunil debuts his life story in this exhibition.

Sunil grew up in India in the 1960s and attended college in Montreal, where he developed an interest in photography. Currently, London is home to Gupta, who has exhibited his works in one-person shows in India, England, Canada and numerous American Art galleries.

Play Time: The genius and motherhood

Sanjeeva Vats in Einstein.

Gabriel Emanuel’s Einstein (English solo by Sanjeeva Vats of the Pierrot’s Troupe) is scheduled to be held on May 8, at the Shri Ram Centre. Directed by Ashok Purang, ‘Einstein’, is an entertaining and thought provoking play-both a hymn to peace and a requiem to war. It presents an engaging portrait of a man widely regarded as one of the finest creative minds ever and the constant paradoxes that his life was unwittingly led into due to the explosive political dynamics of the first half of the 20th century.

Hailed as the greatest Swiss scientist in history, the greatest German scientist ever, the greatest Jewish scientist and the greatest American scientist, he would be asked to lend his name and his voice to causes such as pacifism, Zionism, the atomic Bomb project, international government and disarmament. Yet he would finally be, at different points of time, bitterly attacked by members of each of these groups.

The cerebral, yet essentially human, one man show by Sanjeeva Vats has elements of pantomime, an abundance of one-liners (“since the mathematicians have explained my theory, I too have difficulty in understanding it,” Einstein jokes) backed by a powerful performance by Sanjeeva Vats with his expressive fusion of accent, facial nuances, body languages and deliberate gestures that captures the essence of Einstein.

Known for its topical, incisive and original productions, Pierrot’s Troupe, this time around, celebrates the 100th year of E=mc2. Hence, the premier show of a play on Einstein.

A play in two acts, it is set in Einstein’s study at Princeton University. The play begins with Einstein taking a witty and often sardonic look at his life on his 70th birthday. He reflects back not only as Einstein the scientist, but as Einstein the man. From the opening moments, he captures the hearts of the audience by engaging them in humorous and simple experiments to explain his theory of relativity. Having gained their trust, he then sweeps the audience into his conflict-filled history starting with his childhood. Author Gabriel Emanuel subtly and carefully ties each scene together, giving the audience small glimpses of Einstein’s major conflict, building their anticipation to the very end when he finally reveals the great man’s most painful dilemma- the decision whether to go against his pacifist beliefs and encourage the development of the atomic bomb.

Pierrot’s Troupe also presents Oriana Fallaci’s Tumko Chahoon, a solo in Hindustani by Ms Niti Phool, on May 9 at the Shri Ram Centre. The script is by Dr M Sayeed Alam and the play is directed by Ashok Purang.

Tumko chahoon, a hard-hitting solo play is a Hindustani adaptation by Dr M Sayed Alam of “Letter to a Child Never Born” by Italy’s celebrated author Oriana Fallaci’s novel. It will be staged on the occasion of Mother’s Day, which falls on May 9. The Pierrot’s Troupe production, has noted theater artiste Niti Phool performing as many as eight diverse characters, enacting not only the protagonist but eight other male and female characters.

The play examines the position of a woman in society, the role it expects her to play and above all, the choices that she as an individual is allowed to make. It is talks about motherhood. The protagonist narrates her story, the moment after she has conceived. For her, life has become one big question where she, a working woman, has to contend with society at large and face the consequences of deciding to give birth to a child. Her only solace is the conversation that she keeps having with her unborn child.

Music Zone
Purity for prosperity

With the expiry of Vishwa Bharati's copyright on all works of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore throwing open his songs to manipulation, a Kolkata-based institute has launched 'Gitabitan Live 2' - a complete collection of his songs on compact discs.

"We have, as far as possible retained the poet's original notations, and not taken any liberties," said Ashis Mukherjee, the General Secretary of Dakshinee, after the CDs were released here.

"The songs have also been approved by the Vishwa Bharati", Mukherjee said, adding that they were often not sung in their original and pure forms and open to interpretation.

'Gitabitan Live 2', the second edition of the first volume launched in year 2000 containing 1,100 of Tagore's works, has songs sung by former students of Dakshinee spread all over the world, who came to India from the USA, UAE, UK, Canada to put together the second volume of 683 songs.

The five sets of updated CDs, complete with an installation CD, in Bengali, English and Roman scripts, are priced at Rs 1,600 (40 dollar) each, with a special price for students of Rabindric music.

The printer-friendly CDs include the bard's famous songs and dance-dramas like 'Chitrangada', 'Shyama', 'Chandalika' and plays like 'Mayar Khela' and 'Balmiki Pratibha'.