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Original Article
ISSN (Online): 2582-7472
ShodhKosh: Journal of Visual and Performing Arts
January-June 2023 4(1), 66–78
How to cite this article (APA): Upadhyay, S. S. (2023). Art Speaks Louder than Words: Indian Folk Art for Anthropocene.
ShodhKosh: Journal of Visual and Performing Arts, 4(1), 66–78. doi: 10.29121/shodhkosh.v4.i1.2023.276
66
ART SPEAKS LOUDER THAN WORDS: INDIAN FOLK ART FOR ANTHROPOCENE
Siddharth Shankar Upadhyay 1
1 M.A. English, Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi, India
ABSTRACT
This paper is an attempt to foreground how art and especially folk art has the potential
to transform the way we view our relationship with the environment. It takes into
consideration the Anthropocene, the epoch where the planet is bearing the load of
disastrous human activities and looks at how Indian Folk Art might offer a solution. Folk
Art, the paper argues has always adhered to a critical posthumanist ideology and
aesthetic. The portrayal of nature in these artforms can offer us potent responses to
Anthropocene. The first section of the paper talks about the connection between Folk Art
and nature within a critical posthumanist framework. Folk art, not just through its
themes but also through the elements it uses, is intricately intertwined with nature, and
responds to the Anthropocene. Subsequent sections take into consideration different folk
and tribal artforms and talk in depth about their connection with nature and prevalent
themes. The paper also analyses some tribal and folk paintings and the folk artworks
presented in India Art Fair in 2018. The scope of this paper is limited to four major folk
artforms (Gond, Pattachitra, Madhubani, Warli) but the arguments made in this paper
pertain to all folk arts in general.
Received 30 November 2022
Accepted 19 January 2023
Published 21 January 2023
Corresponding Author
Siddharth Shankar Upadhyay,
siddharthaupadhyay25@gmail.com
DOI
10.29121/shodhkosh.v4.i1.2023.276
Funding: This resea
rch received no
specific grant from any funding agency in
the public, commercial, or not-for-profit
sectors.
Copyright: © 2023 The Author(s).
This work is licensed under a Creative
Commons Attribution 4.0
International License.
With the license CC-BY, authors retain
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properly attributed to its author.
Keywords: Folk Art, Anthropocene, Critical Posthumanism
1. INTRODUCTION: ART AND ANTHROPOCENE
“Art creates empathy. I believe art is one of the strongest ways to make society
see injustices and, consequently, to make a change. People come together for art, no
matter their backgrounds, political ideologies, or religious beliefs. In this coming
together, there are opportunities for research, learning, raising awareness,
persuading, communing, and mobilizing for change.”
- Zukowski (2018)
Art has always been a medium of expression and a potent tool to hold on to
culture and tradition. It might not be a solution to crisis but definitely makes it easier
to deal with it. The biggest crisis that the world is facing right now is that of staying
alive in a time which is marked by Climate change, Global Warming and
Art Speaks Louder than Words: Indian Folk Art for Anthropocene
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Environmental degradation. The extent of this can be realised in the fact that this
epoch has been termed as the Anthropocene, a time when human actions have
started altering the planet. The debate any such crisis foregrounds, and which has
been reignited by the recent advent of Covid 19, is if Arts and Humanities are of any
importance in situations like these. Science brings us closer to reality, but Art has
the potential to transform minds and inspire them to change that reality.
Papavasİleİou et al. (2020), in his essay on role of art and environmental
conservation, remarks “Art is a source of inspiration and creation. People have
always been looking for artistic expression to find meaning in their lives and to
articulate their experiences.” (p.288) Art helps us to search within us, the solutions
to the problems that lie outside. Now that the importance of Art as a tool for change
has been established, it is important to shift our focus to one of the oldest forms of
expression and the most potent medium for environmental conservation, Folk Art.
Folk art has been strengthening the relationship between man and nature way
before terms like Anthropocene and Eco-art were in vogue. Eco-art, according to
Heartney (2020), “harness[es] the power of art, including its tendency toward
metaphor and verbal/visual play, its resistance to received ideas and its willingness
to colonize new areas of knowledge, to persuade us to think differently about our
relationship to the environment.” This is what folk art has been doing since the
beginning of time, asking us to think differently about how see our environment. For
folk artists, environment or biodiversity is not the “other”, they consider it to be one
of them. For them it is a relationship that does not have any hierarchy but based on
a shared idea of the world. The central theme of all the tribal artforms is nature and
how we can harmoniously co-exist with our natural heritage.
This paper is an attempt to foreground these folk-art forms of India, their
connection with nature, how these forms adhere to a critical posthumanist aesthetic
and how they have always responded to the Anthropocene even before we knew of
it. The first section of the paper talks about the connection between Folk Art and
nature within a critical posthumanist framework. The second section discusses how
folk art not just through its themes but also through the elements it uses is
intricately intertwined with nature and responds to the Anthropocene. Subsequent
sections take into consideration different folk and tribal artforms and talk in depth
about their connection with nature and prevalent themes. The paper also analyses
some tribal and folk paintings and the folk artworks presented in India Art Fair in
2018.
2. FOLK ART AND NATURE: TOWARDS A CRITICAL
POSTHUMANIST WAY OF BEING
Expression and inspiration go hand in hand. Nature has always been a major
source of inspiration for artists. Indian landscape has a lot to offer when it comes to
natural beauty. It is marked by robust mountains, crystal like streams, lush green
valleys and colourful flora and fauna. The earliest records of cave paintings also
show the caveman getting inspired by nature. The evolution of caveman led to the
development of colonies. Hunting and agriculture gradually became essential for
existence. A good harvest and rainfall were crucial for them. In order to assist them,
animals were tamed. They developed a veneration of nature as a result of their
reliance on it. This was reflected in the artwork they produced, which featured
images of forests, wildlife, peaks, showers, waterfalls, etc. Most of this kind of
artwork was created on walls.
Siddharth Shankar Upadhyay
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Folk art has always been very close to nature not just in its themes but also in
its form and elements it uses. As time went on and civilization developed, artists
began employing natural pigments which would be discussed extensively in the next
section. Significant artistic styles developed from various states of the nation
throughout this period and the years that followed. Some notable styles that
emerged at this time are Maharashtra's Warli art, Mithila region's Madhubani art,
Madhya Pradesh's Gond art and Odisha's Pattachitra. Although these art forms
engaged with a variety of themes, some mythological and some depicting the tribal
culture and landscape, nature still remained one of the most recurrent and widely
used ideas in these art forms.
The portrayal of nature in folk art shows a very intricate relationship between
man and nature. It is almost as if nature is not just an integral part of life but a family
member which should be protected and cherished at all costs. In most of these
artforms, nature is depicted as having a divine status. It celebrates not just the
beauty but also the life-giving qualities of nature. It embodies a way of being that is
now being considered essential in the wake of the calamities happening as a part of
the Anthropocene. It served as a way to deal with the Anthropocene before it
became a necessary to live that way. Quoted in an article written for Forbes India,
Shaw, a folk artist remarks, “Indigenous people do not look at nature and wildlife as
resources, as something different from themselves. It’s important to look at wildlife
with our senses as fellow beings. If we do so, understanding them and living in
harmony as beings who we share space with, will be easier” (2021)
Folk art has always already been critical posthumanist in its being even before
this term and the discussions around it existed. Critical posthumanism, as we know
of now, is a way being which decentralises the human and views it as a part of a
networked system based on the relationality of beings. Critical Posthumanists,
according to Braidotti (2013), “devise renewed claims to community and belonging
by singular subjects who have taken critical distance from humanist individualism.”
(p. 39) Human beings have never occupied the centre stage in folk art. In fact, folk
art has always occupied a pre-critical posthumanist space in terms of depicting
human beings not as self-sufficient but depending on their natural environment for
existence, promoting and engaging with new forms of solidarities based on a
relational, intertwined existence. Folk art, Anthropocene and Critical
posthumanism, therefore, make a perfect triangle. Critical posthumanism is a
perfect response to the Anthropocene and Folk art has always been critical
posthumanist in its themes and form.
3. GOND ART AND NATURE
Gond painting is a famous folk artform of the Gond tribal community of central
India. It serves to protect and spread the Gond tribal community's culture. The most
fascinating element of the Gond paintings is their attention to detail and their use of
a plethora of colours. The paintings are done with expressively drawn lines and dots
as a way to bring them to life. They employ brilliant colours like orange, yellow, blue,
and red. These lovely paintings are made using natural colours that are derived from
diverse natural sources, such as flowers, stones, soils, etc. For example, red and
green are obtained from Hibiscus flowers and leaves respectively. Yellow and
Brown are extracted from native sands called "Chui Mitti" and "Gheru Mitti." Cow
dung and Charcoal provide pigments for the black outline. In addition to drawing
inspiration from myths and stories, nature is a key theme in these works. The Hindu
Gods and Goddesses (particularly Ganesha), the tree of life, and jungle settings are
all well-depicted subjects in this painting style, too. In Gond art, the tree has the
Art Speaks Louder than Words: Indian Folk Art for Anthropocene
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highest symbolic value. Trees like Ganja, Mahua, Peepal, Tamrind etc. are
worshipped.
One of the most famous names that comes directly to mind when we think of
Gond Art is that of late Jangarh Singh Shyam. A characteristic feature of his paintings
was the consistent depiction of plants, forests, trees, animals, birds, and biodiversity.
Getting back to his paintings today not just reignites the memories of a lost past but
also tells us how alienated we have become from the peace of our natural treasure.
Gond paintings are replete with natural imagery but at the same time nature also
has a symbolic importance for the Gond Artists other than its artistic importance for
the paintings. Drawing trees in the Gond tradition is believed to be a way to connect
to the divine power. The growth of the tree is associated with getting closer to God.
Nature thus becomes a connecting force between the human and the power beyond
human.
Gond artists are a group of people who have been preserving this beautiful
heritage through their paintings. It is one of the largest tribes based in the state of
Madhya Pradesh. Even the origin of this tribe is deeply interconnected with nature.
Jatba, the mythical Gond hero after which the tribe is named, is said to have taken
birth as nature’s blessing to a virgin. According to the myth he was begotten under
a bean plant and taken care of by a cobra who protected the child from the shade by
using its hood. This relationship shows us the interconnectedness that critical
posthumanism aspires for the Anthropocene. Later, this kid grew up to be a warrior
and became a Gond ruler.
Not just its origin but the nomenclature of the tribe is also closely connected to
nature. The word Gond comes from another Dravidian word Kond which means lush
green mountains. The tribe is naturally concerned with protecting the environment.
Their entire existence revolves around wildlife, water, and green mountains. Even
before such knowledge existed, they believed in the co-dependence of all natural
resources and beings. They realised that their entire existence would be impacted
if even the smallest creatures like birds and bees are absent. The Gonds were aware
of all these processes. Despite being ordinary tribal people, they understood which
we, even in this crisis situation don't.
Parashar (n.d.), in an article written for The Indigenous, writes “. storytelling
becomes a strong element of every [Gond] painting. The paintings depict many
traditional rituals and attempt to highlight man's relationship with nature. In the
eyes of a Gond artist, everything is sacred and intimately connected to nature.” This
sentiment is clearly visible in Figure 1 and Figure 2. These images show beautiful
Gond artworks that depict how Gond artists represent their relationship with
nature. Both these artworks share a similar sentiment. They both portray a hybrid
of nature and man. This kind of hybridity is at the centre of critical posthumanism.
As Stacy Alaimo (2010) puts it: “Imagining human corporeality as transcorporeality,
in which the human is always intermeshed with the more-than human world,
underlines the extent to which the substance of the human is ultimately inseparable
from ‘the environment’” (p. 2). Human here does not remain autonomous but
becomes intertwined and embedded in an eco-critical system. This realisation is
what Art for Anthropocene also attempts to bring about.
Siddharth Shankar Upadhyay
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Figure 1
Figure 1 Retrieved From https://www.memeraki.com/blogs/news/gond-art-residing-in-the-
heart-of-india
Figure 2
Figure 2 Retrieved From https://www.atelierom.guru/gond-art
4. NATURE IN THE PATACHITRAS OF BENGAL AND ORISSA
Pattachitra, a Sanskrit word has two root words “patta” meaning cloth and
“chitra” meaning picture. Thus, Pattachitra is a picture that has been painted on a
piece of fabric. This style of art is closely associated with Shri Jagannath's religion
and Puri's temple customs. Patachitra paintings involve very extensive and
elaborate canvas making process. It carries a traditional and cultural significance
and is handed down by generations of artists. The primary base is made by cloth,
which is then lathered with a chalk like, white stone powder. To make the canvas
stronger and give it strength to hold the intricate art strokes, it is coated with a
sticky, glue-like substance made from the seeds of the tamarind plant. This not just
provides the canvas with strength but also makes it more receptive to the
absorption of the coloured pigments.
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The fundamental characteristic of this artwork is that the preliminary sketches
are created without the use of a graphite or charcoal. The artist starts by finishing
the artwork's borders. Then, using light red and yellow pigment and a brush, he
begins to make a crude sketch. Next are the primary flat colours. White, red, yellow,
and black are the colours used here. After that is finished, the piece is finished with
delicate black brush strokes that resemble pen work. The canvas is held over a
charcoal fire once the painting is finished, and the canvas is coated with lacquer. This
gives it a great glittering gloss while also making it sturdy and weather resistant.
Another style in which Patachitras are made are the Chitra-Pothies. Chitra-
pothies are a group of painted palm leaves placed on top of one another and secured
by a thread between wood covers which are also painted in the same
style. Patachitra paintings have a specific connection with the earth. The artists of
Patachitra, like other artforms, acquire their supplies from natural sources like
plants, minerals, and the earth. Most of the hues are obtained by crushing stones of
different colours which are ground, boiled and filtered. These paintings then become
one with the very planet.
Patachitra is a storytelling artform. It is based on a compelling narrative or
belief system. Other cultures' primordial art did not experience this, but in the
absence of this, the artist's core issue still remains. We may notice the portrayal of a
person's or a deer's pulse in the other primitive arts. But they are all scattered
throughout. They don't stick together and come together as a complete. There is no
system of belief that could allow all of these to be connected inside. However, the
ancient patachitra's conception of the global essence was based on a coherent belief
system that contained all of reality.
The amazing Jatayu in Ramayana, for example, in Patachitra art is not a real bird
that you will encounter; his conception, his life, and everything else surrounding
him are not connected to our moral planet. However, it is accurate to identify a bird
in him. Additionally, every single item and person in the patachitra's world exists as
internally related to and coherent with every other thing, including this bird, that
ape, the Rakshasas, and all others. The mythical world is not the same as the real
reality. It is the universe of the fundamental nature. But it is a planet with a unique
harmony. And it was in such a world that the patachitra's faith came into its own.
Since Patachitras are basically connected with telling stories, they usually use
folk myths and legends for their artworks. One such legend portrayed through
Patachitras is the Legend of Bon Bibi, the goddess of forest who promotes
harmonious co-existence of all species in the forest. Patachitra art becomes
performative and is deeply connected to theatre. Legend of Bon Bibi is usually
performed in folk theatres spreading the message of a shared ecology. Figure 3
shows a colourful, vibrant Pattachitra or Patua. Using intricate strokes and bright
colours, it depicts biodiversity at its best. It reminds us of a lost past, igniting within
us the sentiments of nostalgia and desperation to reclaim that lost heritage. This
depicts a pre-anthropocentric universe and helps us build a contrast between what
our planet was and what is it heading to be. This is how art can transform you
emotionally to see things which are not easily visible.
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Figure 3
Figure 3 Retrieved From
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/ci/AC_FhM93dtw__l59IXs1WRjrZKYne5pMOupFH-
sFIhOgi3dLB3LNAZ3TjO0M_-FXpLfheDquYj_b8g=s1200
5. MADHUBANI ART AND NATURE
Madhubani paintings emerge from the Mithila regions of Bihar and Nepal.
These paintings like other tribal artforms are not just beautiful but also have a deep
sense of rootedness in nature and natural phenomena. These paintings portray
trees, birds, animals, biodiversity and use vivid and bright colours and fine strokes
to make their beautiful art-pieces. Trees are very important symbols in Madhubani
Art. Madhubani artists consider the tree to be a life-giving force. Since ancient times,
Madhubani paintings have served as an expression of the connection between
humanity and wildlife. The allure comes in the fact that every resource used to
create this art is pure and derived from nature as discussed in the previous
sections and environmentally benign. Apart from that it is also unique as this art
form also exhibits this unique relationship of humans with nature.
It was first developed as a women's hobby. The colours were traditionally
prepared by women using items found nearby. But the beautiful part of all this is
that the Madhubani artisans always choose the blossoms that have fallen to the
ground rather than plucking them. Madhubani art is inseparable from nature. It is
very difficult to imagine a Madhubani painting without trees and birds. Since the
beginning of time, Madhubani Art has embodied the sacredness of nature and
environment preservation, even in a time when the people in power don't seem to
care about climate change and environmental concerns.
The beautiful Madhubani paintings in Figure 4 and Figure 5 speaks volumes.
Figure 4 blurs the boundaries between human and nature where they actually
become one with each other. This is again a hybrid structure like the one we looked
at in the Gond painting. Here, a woman can be seen becoming one with the tree,
where her arms become the branches of the tree which inhabits a flock of birds. As
much as it is a representation of a hybrid posthuman (in terms of what it stands for
and not in terms of the chronological aspect) being, it also shows the tribal folk
upholding their culture and traditions like the woman in the painting is carrying the
tree and birds over her head. The other figure showing Madhubani art also shows
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how nature is one of the central themes of Folk Art where tree is at the centre and
also acts as a framing art for the rest of the artwork. It begins and ends with nature.
Figure 4
Figure 4 Retrieved From https://www.novica.com/p/signed-madhubani-painting-of-mother-
nature/330433/
Figure 5
Figure 5 Retrieved From https://www.fizdi.com/birds-elephant-motifs-madhubani-art-
art_5111_29910-handpainted-art-painting-12in-x-16in/
6. EMBEDDEDNESS OF WARLI ART IN NATURE
The majority of the Warli paintings are produced by the Tribal groups of the
western Indian region of the North Sahyadri Range. The Warli tribe enjoys folk art
and also practises ceremonial culture and worships gods and goddesses. Through
this form of painting, they represent their way of life, rituals, and traditions. The
majority of the people who make these artworks are women. Warli painting is
renowned for its monochromatic representations of traditional life that convey
socio-religious rituals, fantasies, and beliefs. Warli painting elements include nature,
community members, and occasions that were a part of their daily social lives. There
are several recurring themes in Warli art, such as the "Lagnacha Chauk," a typical
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artwork used during wedding ceremonies. Tree of life, Tarpa dance, Baarisi festival,
and Peran are recurring images.
Typically, Warli paintings are created in and for homes. The walls of the home
provide a natural red canvas due to the traditional red-ochre colour of the walls.
This natural dye for the walls is obtained by mixing twigs, soil, and cow dung. For
their artwork, the Warli only employ the colour white which gives a beautiful white
on red finish. For brushes, bamboo sticks 1are used with their ends flattened and
chipped to create a brush like surface. The white colour for the paintings is created
using rice which are blended into a paste using water. To help it bind better to the
surface, which is the wall, gum is added to the mixture. Nature becomes a part of the
household, painted on every wall. Nature becomes both theme and elements of the
Warli painting.
Warli tribe has a very interesting location on the outskirts of Mumbai. The Warli
people have been able to avoid most of the pressures brought on by urbanisation
while living so near to Mumbai. Such pressures come with an underlying logic of
cost-benefit ratio. But as Dileep (2020) writes, “No benefits outweigh the costs of
the loss of native species of plants, animals and birds, and the displacement of
indigenous tribes like the Warlis, who are the true climate warriors.” The early
1970s saw the discovery of the art form. Their incredibly crude wall paintings make
use of the basic shapes of circles, triangles, and squares. They create monosyllabic
artworks. These symbols are also derived from and represent nature. The circle
represents the sun and moon, and the triangle is made up of hills and conical trees,
both of which they observed in nature. Only the square, which denotes a sanctified
boundary or a plot of land, appears to follow a distinct logic and appears to have
been created by humans.
Warli art is founded on the idea of Nature as being a nurturer or mother, and
natural features are frequently in the foreground. Since agriculture is the tribes'
primary means of subsistence, they have a great reverence for the riches that
environment and biodiversity offer. Warli painters are renowned to use their clay
homes as backgrounds for these paintings, much to how paintings from prehistoric
times were produced. Religious imagery, such as deity figures and religious symbols,
are never used in Warli paintings. Patel & Srivastava (2020) remarks, “Warli
paintings depict a sense of uniformity in people and highlight close social relations
within their community members. Elements in paintings such as trees, animals,
events, social gathering s and formations of humans are from real life scenarios and
situations. A Warli painting can also be a visual narration of their traditional stories.”
(p. 425) For them nature is the object of worship. It speaks of our reliance on and
kinship with environment and portrays nature as a deity. Warli artworks stress
deep social bonds among members of the community and portray a sense of
consistency in people.
The woods, creatures, events, community gatherings, and human formations
depicted in paintings are all taken from actual events and situations. A Warli
painting might serve as a visual representation of one of their folktales. In an article
written by Vakkalanka (2013) for The Hindu, talking about Sandhya Arvind’s tribal
and folk paintings, she quotes Sandhya who remarks, “The Warli paintings reflect
the rustic lives of the people in the region. They live with their animals, they live
in harmony with nature, even with wild animals and give equal importance to its
every aspect, even depicting snakes and ants in their paintings.” For Warli people
community and togetherness is of utmost importance. But their idea community is
a co-habited space marked by harmonious interdependence of different species.
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Figure 6
Figure 6 Retrieved From https://www.worldartcommunity.com/blog/2019/04/the-warli-art-
tradition/
Figure 7
Figure 7 Retrieved From https://www.artzolo.com/traditional-art/warli-art-32-0?id=249175
Figure 6 and Figure 7 show Warli paintings in their truest form. Figure 6
represents a classic Warli painting which is almost a subversion of the
anthropocentric humanist ideal. It is a decentralisation of man, although, at the same
time, hinting towards a power dynamic through the figure of hunting. But what
occupies the centre space in this painting is the figure of a domestic animal, probably
a cow, surrounded by multiple men and women. This in itself is a representation of
an anti-humanist idea which decentralises the man. This is what critical
posthumanism also calls for.
Figure 7 depicts what Warli art stands for, a simple idyllic rural landscape. It
depicts an ecosystem shared by all. Trees, animals, and humans are all a part of one
big family, co-existing and co-habiting a space created collectively by all. No one here
occupies a position of power. This picture depicts a very simple, rural, posthumanist
aesthetic, a networked system marked by co-dependence. Warli Art thus not just
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responds to the Anthropocene but also gives us a way forward. It shows us what to
do, how to exist in peace with the environment and live harmoniously and
sustainably.
7. EARTH WARRIORS: INDIA ART FAIR (2018)
An exhibition organised at the India Art Fair (2018) titled Earth Warriors,
realised this potential of Folk art to convey what plain didactic language cannot. The
exhibition showcased a variety of folk-art forms to spread the message of
environmental conservation and sustainability. The title of the fair is really
interesting. The word ‘warriors’ implies there is a war, a war against the human
forces of the Anthropocene that have led to a dark reality. Here, Art in general and
Folk Art in particular becomes a saviour. The divine status that Folk Art accords to
nature comes a full circle with Art assuming a divine position to deal with a calamity.
The exhibits at the fair are worth looking at. Curated by Minhazz Majumdar for
World Environment Day, it used the natural connection of Folk artists with their
artwork to promote the intricate relationship of man and environment.
One of the exhibits in this event was a carefully painted Patachitra scroll, a
representation of how our relationship with mother earth has altered beyond
repair. Through active storytelling of the Patachitra, Mantu Chitrakar, the artist,
depicts a glorious past that has been lost because of the selfish interests of human
beings. In a report of the event, Bhatia (n.d.), the reporter writes, “one certainly
cannot miss the angst in his tone as his finger travels from one painting to another.”
It shows us how Anthropocene has forced Folk Art to move from a celebration of
nature to an anger and nostalgia for a lost heritage.
In another exhibits featuring Gond Art by the artist Ram Singh Urveti and
Meghalayan Art of basket weaving by Billori Kynter, we see how artists are trying to
forge a connection between the present and the past by using materials from
present to make folk art. Kynter weaves a traditional basket not from bamboo but
plastic showing us how past can still offer us solutions to reuse and recycle.
Similarly, Urveti uses diesel to derive the ink from which he makes his Gond Art
again offering a sharp commentary of the need to get back to the glorious past that
we have collectively lost. In the same tradition, Pradyumna Kumar also makes a
sculpture of a cow using plastic waste which shows how engrained these toxic
substances have become with our ecosystem and it is a time to rethink our ways.
How Folk Art is responding to the Anthropocene in contemporary times could
also be seen in the Madhubani painting of Pushpa Kumari where she uses the
traditional artform to show a woman picking up plastic wrappers from the street
and putting them in her garbage basket cleaning the environment. It is a
representation of how folk artists are trying to correct the mistakes of the present
by using the lessons from the past.
While talking to reporter Navraj Bhatia, Minhazz Majumdar, the curater of the
exhibition remarks, “Most folk and tribal communities have a deep reverence for
Mother Earth and for all life forms. They respect her gifts of water, air, and fire.
Indigenous people view themselves as custodians of Mother Earth. Only that which
is needed is taken from Earth, nothing more, nothing less, so that Earth continues to
thrive for future generations.” She feels that visual medium especially that of Folk
Art can prove to be an efficient educational tool for the generations to come.
It is interesting to see how Folk Art, deeply rooted in culture and tradition, is
responding to the present crisis of the Anthropocene. The dedication of these Earth
Warriors to preserve nature is reinforced by every piece of art, whether it be the
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metaphorical Madhubani paintings, the straightforward yet captivating Warli art,
the vivid colours of Patachitras, the visual fractal patterns of Gond art, or the sombre
tints and spectacular forms of clay art pieces from Hazaribagh.
8. CONCLUSION
“In the debate of reason and emotion, reason tells us what the problem is, but
emotion gives us the inspiration to move forward. Keeping this in mind, both are
equally important to fight the negativities of the Anthropocene era.”
-Bajpai (2022)
Art is emotion. It is passion. It helps you live the reality that everything has to
come to end one day. This paper shows how returning to the traditional forms can
be a way to move forward. Folk Art might not act as a magic wand, but it might offer
us alternate ways of living. It might show us what are we missing out on. It might
ignite a restorative nostalgia among us which might act as a tool to bring about
change. All these ‘might-s’ show us that there is a hope, but we need to transform
our ways and be open to learning from traditional and tribal forms. Art has a lot of
potential to transform the thinking process and Folk Art because of its themes and
elements uses that potential to ignite an environmental consciousness among the
unthinking lot.
Preminger (2012) words resonate with what this paper is trying to conclude,
“Art is a medium of inducing experiences. Artistic experiences can be a vehicle to
convey meanings, a way to provide pleasure, or means for self-expression and
communication. Every artwork leads to a mental experience by the observer,
participant, or experiencer.” (p. 1) Indian Folk Art provides this experience. It is not
just colours on canvas; it is a whole story. It tells the story of man’s relationship with
nature, how both an inseparable and how this relationship is marked by a shared
existence of the world. It has the potential to act as guiding light in the present time
of environmental crisis. Folk Art is not a regression but a hope to be able to live
better, it is not past but the promise of a brighter future.
CONFLICT OF INTERESTS
None.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
None.
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