On International Tiger Day, a group of artists came together to create awareness on the big cat’s extinction. Darpan Mago reports
Dev has painted caricatures of people who have recently been in news. The unique thing about his cartoons is that they are painted on a tiger mask made of fiber and clay. “The mask is full of caricatures of personalities like Rahul Gandhi, Manmohan Singh and Kumar Vishwas. The idea is to present the face of people who have been trying to gather a tiger’s share of fame. I feel sad that not many are concerned of saving tiger that is on the verge of extinction. I have also put our PM on the top of the mask, as he came out victorious like a tiger. Through my artworks I want to appeal to him to look into the matter,” said Dev.
Babita Biswas has made a sincere attempt to revive the mask painting through her exhibition titled Sher-e-Kalaa at HUDCO art gallery on the eve of International Tiger Day. Babita, the curator of this exhibition, said, “On March 22, I was sitting in my drawing room and wanted to do something different. India has only 1,411 tigers left. I conceptualised this exhibition and I first approached female artists and thought I would approach 200 of them. I wasn’t able to get the support of all 200 female artists and one month was already gone. The idea behind approaching female artists was that female represents the creational energies of universe, they signify growth.”
First nearly 200 face-masks of tiger were made with clay and fibre and were sent to artists all across India to fill them with their creativity. Kosal Kumar, a faculty member at the College of Art in Delhi, is the person who made these 200 tiger faces. He said, “As a face of a tiger was required to be carved, the facial expressions were to be kept calm and composed without any ferocity. We had to make a friendly looking tiger face. Though I have seen how a tiger looks like but for this project, I wanted to have a closer look at the animal. I went to zoo and watched a couple of videos on YouTube to bring out the exact expressions on its face. I didn’t want to leave any stone unturned.”
Shikha Sinha is one of the artists who has done abstract work on the masks. She hasn’t simply decorated the face by drawing eyes, nose and mouth on the mask but used wide variety of media. She said, “I have tried to show synergy through my work. It is a combination of different media that leads to a new formation. The small mirror pieces in my work are reflective and symbolise a person’s own perception, the unique way of looking at an art piece. One must note that there is a strong relationship between the artist and the artwork. Take an example of human relationships, we are first attracted to a person through his physical appearance. But when we get to know each other, we connect with the soul. later, it is that connection with the soul that binds two individuals. Similar relation is of the artist and artwork, first the outer appearance attracts but once you formulate a deeper meaning you attach yourself to the work. I have also used the golden beads signifying hope and the fact that there is light at the end of the tunnel. The two triangular shapes drawn near the mouth of the tiger denote male and female energies. The inverted triangle is used to show female in tantra art, where an upright triangle denotes male energy.”
Another artist, Arpitha Reddy who is trained in the style of Kerala temple mural painting, has painted Durga’s face on the tiger mask. She said, “As tiger is Durga’s vahan, I decided to paint Durga’s face on the mask.” Reena Chaudhary’s work on Mother Nature has been brought by Jackie Shroff for Rs50,000. The price of works at this exhibition vary from Rs10,000 to 50,000.