Bikaner 17 Archive - Serendipity

Indian Crafts Tradition and Expression

webdesk — Mon, 20 Mar 2017 12:28:42 +0000

In the Western discourse, the so-called categories of folk and tribal arts and crafts have been considered under several antithetical binaries, such as magical versus aesthetic, collective versus individualistic, craft versus art, and traditional versus contemporary. By any standard, the two components of each of these binaries are not mutually exclusive—an object need not be bereft of artistic intent and properties while serving a magical function; it may be a part of a collective tradition of belief and visual idiom and still may have been produced with an identifiable individual’s skill and aesthetic vision; if an object is labour-intensive, it still could be an inventive personal creation; and lastly, tradition has never been a static entity but is always evolving, imbibing and responding to external cultural contacts and in that sense continuously ‘contemporary’. H. Gene Blocker’s description of “primitive art” equally applies to craft: it is not devoid of aesthetic interest—it is created by a conscious producer of art, it is subject to critical appraisal, and is set apart from ordinary life; it represents the world or events literally or symbolically and involves the possibility of innovation within a tradition. The exhibition Indian Crafts: Tradition and Expression is based on these ideas.

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Photography Express/Aspire

webdesk — Mon, 20 Mar 2017 12:29:08 +0000

Students of AUXILLUM CONVENT HIGH SCHOOL in CARANZALEM, GOA are between 3 & 5 years of age. These children come from low income group families, where most of the parents’ work as construction workers. Serendipity Arts Festival has collaborated with the school to create this empowerment exercise.

Express & Aspire

For the past 18 years, Samar S. Jodha has been conducting the Express & Aspire Workshops on a pro-bono basis with underprivileged people in Asia and Africa. Each workshop goes beyond honing the creativity of the individuals to help raise self-esteem, impart life lessons and offer possibilities that are hard for these individuals to otherwise imagine in their difficult circumstances. Awards, exhibitions and fundraisers are some of the other outputs emerging from these engagements. Past beneficiaries include Schools, Communities and Local NGOs.

Artist who over the last 20 years, has been using Photography, Film, Installation Art to address various issues such as Development, Human rights, Conservation. Among several significant projects in India and overseas, Jodha was invited by Amnesty International to install “BHOPAL: A Silent Picture”, in a 40-foot container during the London Olympics. He is a regular speaker on TEDx.
www.samarsinghjodha.com
#expressaspire

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Installation Chakraviewby INDIA DESIGN FORUM

webdesk — Mon, 20 Mar 2017 12:29:22 +0000

This is an installation which is uniquely Indian at its core and celebrates the Chakra, or a source of power, and a symbol of evolution and renewal. The Chakraview is a walk-in installation which has Jamdani and Ikat silks hanging from the ceiling, hand-painted signs enclosed in circular hoops, and a black, shiny, reflective floor which mirrors the ceiling and the multiple chakras on it.

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Performances Sandhi

webdesk — Mon, 20 Mar 2017 12:29:38 +0000

April 6
Choreography: Amrita Lahiri (Kuchupudi)
Vocal: Smt. Sudha Raghuraman
Nattuvangam: Shri Keshavan
Mridangam and Kanjira: Shri Chandersekhar
Flute: Shri Raghuraman
Tabla and other percussion: Shri Shambhu Bhattacharya

April 7
Concept & Choreography: Ayona Bhaduri (Odissi)
Music Composition: Srinibas Satapathy
Rhythm Input: Budhanath Swain
Musician: Rupak Kumar Parida

This commissioned production would be a confluence of dance, music and literature. The collaboration between a classical dancer and a classical vocalist addresses a serious lacuna in the field of dance — the scarcity of creative dance music. Even though music is an integral part of dance, there is a growing absence of powerful dance music. The reason for this is the increasing chasm between dance and music, where the dancer is a seen as the primary figure whereas the musician is an accompanist. Consequently, many musicians restrain from being a part of dance productions since they feel it might diminish their image as a soloist. This collaborative work seeks to challenge this hierarchy. It would bring together accomplished dancers and vocalists and in some cases instrumentalists in some cases on the same platform to co-create the production with a selected text, where the musician composes and the dancer choreographs, both being equally significant aspects of the production. The production is true depiction of creative collaborations.

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Story Telling Eight Moons

webdesk — Mon, 20 Mar 2017 12:30:03 +0000

THE HUNTER AND VISIONS WITH THE POISON PLANTS

“There were these eight visions that the hunter had just as soon as he had spoken with the plant that grew from the crevice beneath the birch tree…

He was asked by the Elder Spirit of the plant to make four bamboo vessels into which the Rainbow Woman from the great skies above would hide her eight stories…”

In this session series, Koitso continues the tales from the Eight Moons Project and takes a deeper travel into the shamanic world of sacred plants, their sounds and songs of the other side…

Using ritual music and native ceremonial sounds, the session is a yet another wonderful exploration of the Earth in her most sacred essence…

The Eight Bamboo Visions and Stories of the Yeti is an enchanting storytelling series which brings together a very rare collection of original and traditional stories by Koitso, delicately woven into a session of mountain sounds and music. The stories not only provide a beautiful way to explore the elusive Himalayan cultures but also open doors to experience the ancient traditions where stories become sacred and guides for inner transformation.

Based on a traditional tale of a hunter who spent 8 moons (around 240 days) across the four corners of the world in search of stories to heal the rivers in his Himalayan highlands, the journey too takes us around the globe in storytelling, meeting various oral cultures and including theirs along the way

About the Storyteller

Koitso Salil Mukhia is from the Kiranti indigenous community of the Eastern Himalayas and from the Koinch, Bung Naa group – one of the smaller linguistic tribes. His effort over the last 15 years, both as a storyteller and traditional healer brings the lesser known traditions of tribal India before the mainstream.

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Play Dr.Khanna

webdesk — Mon, 20 Mar 2017 12:30:24 +0000

Through the course of the 45 minute appointment, psychiatrist Dr. Khanna challenges businessman Mr. Kohli’s perspective of his own problems, and the formal barriers between patient and doctor begin to melt into a camaraderie that the two begin to share.

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