Foreign sculptors at the ongoing International Friendship Exhibition at Rose Garden are mesmerised by Ranchi’s environment. local denizens, according to them, are unaware about sculpture but eager to learn about their creativity. Interestingly, it includes people of different age groups. Australian sculptor Birgit Grapetin, who is in India for the first time, said that she was pleased to see the culture here. “Australian culture is merely 200 years old. However, Indian culture is quite older and is still maintained. Impressed by the sarees of women visitors, I am making flow of a saree on a marble stone. I would like to visit the city again as I can associate my feminist feelings in my work,” added Grapetin.
Notably, school children, public and private employees and housewives are visiting the exhibition frequently. Grapetin is touched by the interaction and willing to host an exhibition for children in her native land after returning from this exhibition. For Thailand sculptor Noppadon Viroonchatapun, he felt blessed to get a scope of working on a big marble stone in this part of the country.
“Prior to my visit to Ranchi, I gathered details about the city on internet. Based on collected data, I am crafting my face leaning near waterfall. Since, Ranchi is called city of waterfalls, it is a great feeling to work on that theme,” Viroonchatapun mentioned. Sculptor Nasima Haque Mitu from Bangladesh could relate her patriotic feelings with India. She said, “We belong to Bangladesh which is an under-developed nation. In such crisis, I have learned to make good out of the limited resources available.”
For Nepal sculptor Om Khattri, Ranchi is like any other city of his country. “The local granite stone and marble stone are stronger than my motherland. The crafting outcome is long lasting,” he said. Similar were the views of five sculptors participating in the exhibition besides six foreign sculptors. Chanchal Krishna Dey, the only terracotta sculptor here said the ambience has given him models to imitate in his work. The senior terracotta sculptor from Kolkata said trees, birds and flowers within the rose garden have given him creative ideas.
“Jharkhand has a lot of opportunities to utilise terracotta,” he said. Renowned Sculptor Janak Jhankar Narzary of Santiniketan, also the organiser of the first of its kind programme here pointed on the unexpected response from the public. “Most of the visitors are not aware of our profession. They are astonished to see us crafting on stones. Our main purpose is to understand the feelings of stones by experimenting with different instruments. Sculpture is three dimensional while painting is two dimensional,” Narzary said.
Narzary had plans of inviting more foreign sculptors which eventually failed due to technical hurdles. “None of the abroad artists were given transportation amount. So, we were unable convince many sculptors,” he said.